Mr. Carny got me into the series and I instantly fell in love with it. I loved all the games, though I actually don't think DA:I is all that. It is great, don't get me wrong, but the sidequests are just... fetch quests. Companion quests aside, the vast majority of the quests in DA:I were mindless filler with very little involvemnet. "Oh, a letter randomly in the field, telling me to go here." And then you go there: "oh, a dead body, and the end of the quest. Ho hum." It's lazy story-telling, forcing you to draw to your own conclusions what happened.

The dragon battles though, they were awesome. They were pretty epic affairs.

As for DA2, I agree that sarcastic Hawke was the best Hawke by far. I laughed hard several times due to her comments. For my first run-through of the series, I went full paragon with everyone. I had Quistis Cousland (Rogue), Freya Hawke (Warrior) and Vanille Lavellan (Mage) to sample each class. Warrior was fun but mostly mindless. Rogue was very overpowered in Origins with the backstab, and the Mage in DA:I is practically a required class with Barrier.

I'm now doing a Daenerys run-through of DA:I, and I'm amazed at how much it looks like her.