wasting my time

Freedom vs. Security

Part of Gaider’s claim is that the Mage-Templar conflict is about “freedom versus security”. The immediate problem with this statement is that he is neglecting to include the context of, freedom for who and security for who? When people talk about freedom vs. security in real life, it is usually in reference to things like government surveillance and police presence. In such cases, there is an important difference in context that separates these real arguments and whatever the hell Gaider thinks he’s saying: the people in question are the same. In real life, it is the same group of people suffering from lack of freedom in favour their own so-called security. In Dragon Age, it is the mages that suffer from lack of freedom, for the sake of other people’s so-called security. This means it is not actually an argument of freedom vs. security—it is an argument of freedom vs. oppression. One group (non-mages) is solely benefiting in security through the oppression of another group (mages).

Some may attempt to justify it by saying that the Circles are in place to protect mages from outsiders, too. My rebuttal is quite simple: who teaches the average person to hate and fear mages in the first place? The very same Chantry that seeks to maintain control over their arsenal of mages! Of course they want to “protect” mages and non-mages from each other; it is a way of keeping the mages isolated and biddable.

Arguments in favour of security are of course, very often and easily used as a front for arguments in favour of oppression, don’t get me wrong. This is especially commonplace when colonial governments claim they are here to help, because they know better. But let us not help misconstrue these two connections further by contributing the problem, acting like they are actually the same thing.

Real-World Arguments

There are only two conclusions I can draw from Gaider saying that it is just the fans “wanting” to see real-world arguments, within the Mage-Templar conflict: Either he has forgotten the contents of a game he was the lead writer for, or he is desperate for fans to forget ourselves. Because you do not have to dig to find the real-world arguments already laying on the surface.

What is the Mage Underground, if not a real-world metaphor for escaping enslavement?

The Mage Underground is a network of people helping mages escape the Gallows into freedom. The quest introducing this faction is literally called “The Underground Railroad” – a clear reference to the real life Underground Railroad; the network that assisted Black people escape enslavement in the United States. As the real life railroad was mostly led by free and enslaved Black people with the help of abolitionists, the mage’s railroad is mostly led by mages with the help of sympathetic non-mages.

The Gallows itself was a former gateway for enslaved people when controlled by the Tevinter Imperium, and the Chantry even chose to keep the statues meant to intimidate the slaves. Cullen himself will draw a parallel to Kirkwall’s history of slavery and the current mages held captive in the Gallows. “The image of the poor, chained apprentice is a powerful one. And one the mages are more than willing to exploit,” he says, while the camera hovers over said statues.

What is the Tranquil Solution, if not a real-world metaphor for the “Final Solution”?

In the quest “Dissent”, Anders shares with Hawke that a templar named Ser Alrik has penned what he refers to as “The Tranquil Solution” – a plan to turn every mage Tranquil. “The Tranquil Solution” is a clear reference to “The Final Solution”; a euphemism used by Nazis to mean the genocidal murder of Jewish people. While Tranquility is not outright murder, the plan of turning every single mage Tranquil would qualify as an act of genocide as well. The definition of genocide does, after all, include causing serious bodily or mental harm with intent to destroy a whole group of people. The Tranquil are mages who are not just stripped of magic, but of all emotion and partial mental capacity. They are depicted as helpless servants to the Chantry. They are routinely raped and abused by Templars like Alrik, who outright alludes to this himself, saying when he makes a mage girl Tranquil, she will be forced to do whatever he wants.

Further complementing this allegory are the “Templar Death Squads” in the quest “A Noble Agenda”.

These death squads, described as hand-picked zealots to “purge mage-sympathizers”, are likely referencing the Einsatzgruppen; the Nazi Death Squads that held an integral role in the “Final Solution”.

What is forced sedation, if not a real-world metaphor for involuntary treatment?

During the quest “Best Served Cold,” Hawke has the opportunity to convince Cullen to be merciful on those who were part of the conspiracy to oust Meredith as Knight-Commander. Later, Cullen says that the mages have been “confined to their quarters and sedated”. Essentially, they are treated like detained patients against their will.

My own brother has been a victim of involuntary treatment, where he was kept in a psych ward for two months and drugged so heavily he was walking into walls. It is a very real contemporary occurrence just as much as in the past, especially for racialized populations who are diagnosed with “dangerous” conditions—bipolar disorder, in my brother’s case.

Just how conditions like bipolar disorder for example, are often misunderstood as walking around with a bomb inside, mages in Dragon Age are treated like they are an inherent hazard to everyone around them. Arguments in favour of imprisoning mages, or even outright murdering them all, most frequently come down to seeing them as weapons rather than people. When Cullen himself says this, it is unquestionably presented as a cruel, dehumanizing, immoral position to take. Being able to use magic does not make a person less of a person, just like having a disability does not make a person less of a person! No matter the scale of how impacting disabilities are, or magic is.

Gun Control

I wish I could tell Gaider that if he has to start a sentence with, “it feels dehumanising to do it,” perhaps the rest of that sentence should stop. Perhaps instead you should question why you actually believe it is ever a solid argument to dehumanize a person. Mages are not real, but their real-world parallels are. BioWare went out of its way to draw those parallels; the writers, including Gaider, made active choices to illustrate everything above and more. To be clear, I am not saying they shouldn’t have—I believe these choices add a distinct flavour to the world-building of Dragon Age that separates it from many other fantasy settings. And while the writing does not always land well, at least an attempt was made to say something impactful. I will always favour that over choosing to take the easy-way out by scrubbing your work of anything that could be interpretable as day I say, politically progressive.

Measures to prevent gun violence usually involve firearms laws to limit misuse. These laws are of course incapable of being 100% iron-clad, because there will always be outliers to any situation. However, it is proven to overall limit the amount of gun violence in countries with strict firearms laws compared to, well, the United States. (The US gun homicide rate is 26 times that of other high-income countries.)

What firearms laws do not do, is require anyone with a gun to be abducted from their family and locked up in a prison for the rest of their life. That is what the Chantry does to mages in Dragon Age, and they do not even have a choice in the matter. Mages are not guns. Mages are people who just happen to have magic, and it does not even take magic to cause mass harm, as proven time and again across the franchise and even specifically just in DA2. For example, in the quest “Blackpowder Courtesy” an angry elf is able to kill off an entire area of Lowtown with stolen Qunari poison.

The only characters who want to compare the Mage-Templar conflict to something like gun control, are the characters who are part of the actual problem of mage self-determination; the ones like Cullen who advocate against treating mages as people. By trying to say that this line of thinking is valid, Gaider is only showing that he has a complete lack of understanding of what makes the argument so villainous. He just sounds like certain fans of a show like The Boys, who unironically idolize fascist characters like Homelander. (Sidenote: I have never personally seen The Boys. I am just familiar with the main villain and how real-life fascists sympathize with him through internet osmosis.)

In a roleplaying sense, there is of course nothing wrong with having a characters side with the Templar Order. I am not advocating for treating roleplaying decisions as if they represent real life morals. However, this is a specific case where Gaider is not speaking in terms of in-universe; he is genuinely saying that the argument against mages is a virtuous one. Except it’s not! It is so unmistakeably not.

“You have a sword. Why aren't you killing someone right now?” —Bethany Hawke

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SOURCES:

Codex entry: Kirkwall - The Gallows

Quest: “The Underground Railroad”

Quest: “Dissent”

Quest: “A Noble Agenda”

Quest: “Blackpowder Courtesy”

Dialogue: Cullen during and after completing the quest “Enemies Among Us”