I don'r

then the justice reveal happens and you come to realize theres two separate forces at work here and you get to know each of them as individuals. the merge is still fresh and they're just so fundamentally different there's still a clear divide which means justice actually has the opportunity to be a character. you get to speak to justice and he's still that passionate, inquisitive spirit who finds value in the mundane and romanticizes humanity as the embodiment of freedom. he's blunt and direct to fault and feels almost alien to the people around him and his interactions with other characters are stiff at best and downright hostile at worst because like can you blame them. that's a demon possessing a mortal host. its the very essence of everything the chantry has conditioned people to hate and fear. but as the player you have this innate special insight to who he is. he's changed too. he's more light-hearted. he has a far better grasp of humor and social cues. he loves animals and theres a running gag where characters find him trying to befriend feral cats. he's oddly charming and is the one that actually hits hawke with those initial anders flirt lines from act 1.

then act 2 rolls around and its subtle at first but theres this undeniable blurred line forming between justice and anders. maybe justice fronts less but anders is still picking up his habits and speaking more and more like him. maybe there's just much more "inbetween" moments where the two bleed into one another than there was before. either way its become clear that the possession is becoming something of a fusion and man maybe THATS where the rivalry conflict is truly born because hawke sees what's happening and is alarmed for the both of them and the major source of conflict is actually that hawke believes they're both losing their identity to this new unnatural being.

Theres a difference between this kind of antagonism and Fenris and Anders version. There's a familiarity in Fenris and Anders fights by act 2, it's not playful, it's meant to hurt, but asking someone if they've ever thought about killing themselves is something you do because you KNOW someone.

The only way for a Circle mage to get nice things is to be nice to their jailers and be useful to the Circle. Mages don't usually get out of the Circle, and if they do, they're probably not allowed to just go shopping, which means that to get something nice, you have to be allowed to not only make money, but spend it. Under strict supervision, of course.

Now guess how many nice things a guy who tried to escape 7 times and spent a year in solitary can have?

How many good wool coats has a Fereldan farm boy had in his life?

I suppose the only reason he has pauldrons and an earring in Awakening is because he got them from someone while he was on the run, and the Templars just haven't taken them away from him yet.