From a certain perspective, Elthina’s character is actually a very interesting examination of the concept innocence. Where ‘innocence’ is described entirely in terms of “does not do bad things,” Elthina is certainly innocent. She does not do bad things. She also doesn’t do good things, and more critically, she doesn’t do necessary things. She stands aside in full knowledge of bad things that are going to be done, which she has both the power and the duty to prevent, and does not do the necessary things to prevent them. Hundreds to thousands of people died because of Elthina’s inaction, but because it was inaction rather than action, she is still technically “innocent.” Her hands are clean.
This stands in contrast to Anders, whose hands are bloody. Anders does good things (healing,) bad things (killing,) and necessary things. I’ve commented before that Anders and Elthina are placed in opposition to each other throughout the game, with the tension between them driving much of the plot. High vs low, rich vs poor, change vs stasis, institution vs insurrection. If Elthina is innocent, Anders is not; but if Elthina defines innocence, is innocence really what we want?
As others have pointed out, the problem with a story setup where you define inaction as virtuous and all action as bad is that you then have a situation where, since your good guys are required to be passive and incompetent, the bad guys have to drive all plot and advancement, and thereby become much more interesting characters that threaten to capture the attention and sympathy of your audience.
Much of the art and framing of the game paints an opposition-duality-conflict between Orsino and Meredith, with Elthina as an innocent bystander. I would rather say that the dualities that push the game ahead are Anders vs Elthina and Meredith vs Hawke, with Orsino as a powerless bystander.
Meredith is not Anders’ enemy; Meredith is Hawke’s enemy – even in a completely pro-Templar playthrough, Meredith still must die, since she bars Templar-Hawke’s path to the viscountship. Meredith was doomed because she made too many enemies – she turned even the nobles of the city against her, and could not have held on through sheer force forever.
But Meredith is not Anders’ enemy, because she is the product of a corrupt system rather than a producer, and her death would change nothing in the long run. If Elthina had survived DA2 and Meredith didn’t, Elthina would have tsked, shaken her head sadly, and appointed a replacement Knight-Commander just like her.
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