#da the missing

I see some posts implying that Lucanis has a grudge against mages like Fenris, and I think this needs a bit of a clarification.

The title likely stems from The Wigmaker Job, where he and Illario were hired to assassinate one of the Very Nasty Evil Venatori Adjacent Corrupt Tevinter Mages who did horrendous things. This is where I think the "mage killer" reputation comes from. Lucanis might have spotted there are many contracts to shrink a specific Tevinter mage circles - the Venatori are still around, they hold positions in the Magisterium, they do sketchy rituals in Minrathous catacombs, several factions including The Lucerni and Shadow Dragons want them down.

Primarily, Lucanis is an Antivan Crow. Illario and he are grandchildren to Caterina Dellamorte, the First Talon, who played an active role in their training. Lucanis is not a "magekiller" like Marius from comic books is a warrior trained specifically to slay mages.

Dragon Age: The Missing #4 Spoilers ahead

Our dashing duo of rogues, Varric and Harding, arrive at Minrathous. They start arguing almost immediately, as Harding claims that they lost too much time hunting the Venatori assassin and should be focusing on Solas, while Varric believes that there is a connection between the two that shouldn't be ignored.

Harding counters that it is one more reason to focus on Solas and that they don't even have a plan to deal with him when they find him. Varric says that he is going to talk to Solas and Harding answers that talking may not be enough. She then concludes that they need help.

If you guys remember issue 1, that's a bit strange, since Harding says Varric were "his friend" and "could talk to him. Make him understand". Furthermore, in a flash back, Varric says to Charter that bringing Harding is a "terrible idea" because she "sees the best in people, and Solas can use that to manipulate her, get her to hesitate". The roles they played in the first issue were reversed in this one, but I'm not sure if this was intentional (in fact, I'd bet it wasn't)

Varric smiled and replies that he knows a woman in Minrathous. If you are thinking about his awesome, stylish and powerful magister cousin Maevaris Tilani... guess again, because Varric asks for the help of the private investigator Neve Gallus (sorry Neve, love u too)

They meet at a tavern. After some banter between the two, Neve says she is tired of hearing Solas name and says that he attacked some Venatori, stole artifacts from them and freed a group of elven slaves while he was at it (that's our egg)

In addition, those elves are now causing trouble in the city, presumably in the name of the one who freed them. Neve asks if they are sure if they wanna be mixed up in all of that, and Harding replies that the trouble in Minrathous is just the beginning. Varric, however, doesn't agree with her and points out that they don't know that yet.

They argue again. Harding says that Solas clearly doesn't want to be found and Varric should prepare himself because the only way to stop Solas may be with an arrow.

Varric answers that the Venatori only got what was coming for them and that he "will knock some sense on the fool" when he sees him. Before Harding can say anything else, he asks Neve if she has any leads.

She does. As they walk towards the hiding place of some escaped slaves, she talks about the Shadow Dragons, a group that works with her and has been helping fred slaves. They may be working for Solas, but that just mean that they will be one step closer to him.

Varric spots their Venatori "friend", but they don't try to follow him this time

Neve shows where some of the slaves are coming to find food and, fortunately, two happened to be there at the time. They got startled when they say two armed (probably three) strangers aproaching and ran. Harding did some cool stuff with her bow to stop one of them from running, but the other vanished.

Varric offers the remaining guy (an elf btw) coin for answering his questions. He accepts and say that Solas freed them, but he doesn't work for him. He also says that Solas helped more than anyone else, and that he is leaving Minrathous via the canals.

The elf says: "He saw what they had done to us – his kin". However, by the time Trespasser ends, Solas doesn't think of modern elves as his kin. His views may have changed or, more likely, it's just this guys interpretation, doesn't need to be true

He finishes by saying that if Neve actually want to help the slaves, there is going to be a meeting by the docks that night so they can figure out what to do next. Neve replies that she heard about a big Venatori operation was going to happen by the docks that night.

Varric and Harding realize that it's all linked: Solas annoyed the Venatori, so they started following the rogues in an attempt to track him. Since they overheard the tavern meeting with Neve, they think that the slaves are Solas agents and are going to come for them at the docks. Neve says to the elf that they should call off the meeting, but he replies that there is no time.

Varric and Harding decide to protect the slaves, if it means losing Solas trail.

At the meeting, there is a woman saying that the Shadow Dragons offered them a chance to "restore their dignity", "get back the lives stolen by the Venatori", and make sure they don't have to scrabble in the dirt for food and warmth. She thinks they should take that chance, but never gets to finish her speech, as the Venatori arrive.

The Venatori leader taunts and tell his goons to take some of the people alive for questioning, but Varric and Harding swoop in and kill two of his guys.

The slaves were armed, Neve shows up with even more guys and a fight breaks out. The Venatori assassin that was following Varric and Harding is killed by the elf from earlier and can't be questioned.

Talking about Harding and Varric, they agree that they did the right thing, even if Solas is now long gone. After they leave, Harding starts wondering if Solas freed those slaves in an attempt to delay the two, as he knew they wouldn't resist helping. Varric agrees that they were tricked because Solas knows them too well, and says...

"Maybe it's time we brought in some fresh help. Someone Solas doesn't know. Someone he won't see coming."

Thought #1 - Varric is Duncan 2.0: Varric made it through the comics unscathed and without a decision to quit active fighting, but being clearly shown to be getting slow and weary of it all etc etc, like that was basically his entire role in these comics, to give off a “too old for this shit” vibe. I therefore have a sneaking suspicion that Varric is going to essentially be Duncan in DA:Dreadwolf. He will recruit the hero and be shown as a beloved mentor, especially for Harding, tasked with a mission too important to fail. And then, at the end of the Prologue, he will die. That’s when Harding will take up Bianca in his name, as we can clearly see in promo images (@mrs-gauche makes an extremely compelling case for this being Harding):

And she will get a whole arc about grieving for Varric, like Alistair had. The protagonist will get to have something to show the stakes in this and a hook to continue what Varric started but couldn’t finish + to get justice for Varric. It’s a classic story telling device for an inciting incidence, and Bioware already used it successfully when they wrote the battle of Ostagar!

We know the devs have tried to kill of Varric twice before and I feel like they will finally want to nail the bastard (affectionate). And Harding kinda needs a bit more character background and driving motivations tbh. Like, she is absolutely lovely, but she is mostly a blank slate in Inquisition, fresh from her parents’ home and just looking for adventure and meaning. That was really refreshing in DAI when all your companions were Important People(TM) and it felt really nice to just talk to a normal person for once, that wasn’t jaded by it all. To be full companion, however, it makes sense to give her some trauma to work through in her personal story, to allow her to have character growth.

And of course, as others have pointed out before, they would never kill of a character as beloved as Varric in a tie-in comic. That was to be expected. But if the comic had ended with him deciding it’s time to leave it to the next generation or something like that “Right I’m getting too old for this, I’m out” kind of thing, I would have thought they’ll make him an advisor. Since he doesn’t hint at anything like that at all, I’m back on team “Varric will die”. I think all these points to show him getting slow and weary serve as lead up to his death at the end of the first phase of the game.

Also reinforced the divorced vibes he has with Solas lmao

But yeah, I'm not sure why this was a story that needed telling. It didn't break any new ground or share anything we didn't know. The best I can guess is that bioware wanted to give faces to some TN characters so they'll be more recognisable in-game, to give us a glimpse of what to expect in the Arlathan forest, and to introduce the Veil Jumpers and Shadow Dragons. I did see speculation that it's also setting Varric up for a Duncan-esque role in Dreadwolf - an older mentor figure whose death at the end of the prologue will serve as motivation to pursue justice against his killer - and that would be fitting, considering that Gaider has wanted to kill Varric for years, but does that justify a whole comic?