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the premise, in short:

what if, after anders was notably an apostate who blew up a chantry building and killed a chantry leader... people are not particularly stoked when this happens again. except even more destructively. and this time with a Heathen Elf™️ found at the scene. so, instead of seeing the prisoner as any sort of positive religious omen, (most of) the people in haven instead see her as a dangerous criminal, and react accordingly. and this starts to cause further problems. solavellan is also there eventually.

the premise, in long:

it drives me so crazy dfhsjdf

the pivot in dai from religion as a cultural force, to Literal Events And People was a bit unfortunate - i liked the vagueness and mystery around andrastianism and the elven deities, and having it be fully #confirmed is a bit sad.

on the other hand, the high fantasy vibes are neat! arlathancore is fun! and if the writers wanted to escalate the stakes of the plot, it's a great way to do that. and it offers the opportunity for some crazy Ramifications, like what does tevinter do when their national shame is exposed and confirmed? what do the dalish do? how many ancient elves are floating around, and what do they want? what does orzammar do, now that they know the blight that ruined their cities was created BY their biggest trading partner?

the average, busy, stressed, somewhat low-information but well meaning person, sees a solid 3 years of unchecked, horrific carnage in gaza and lebanon and iran. they go "oh shit, what do the mainstream semi-liberal outlets i follow have to say about this? this is awful, they must be as sad as me, right?"

however, the Respectable News Channels are the new york war crimes, and the cnn jake tapper and dana bash islamophobia hour. haha. this erodes any trust in them. seeing an opening for views, right wing opportunists move in, like piers morgan or candace owens or whoever else, and platform anti-war voices in the way the mainstream is not willing to.

therefore, for someone who is being obviously gaslit and lied to about stuff they can see with their own eyes, this looks like a shining light of rationality in a sea of obvious propaganda, and they'll drift towards these alternatives.

now you might say: but they're insane racist conspiracy theorists, how could anyone overlook that!?! well. they're reasonably charming, and they have a message that currently appeals to people more than the other, very blatantly israel-bootlicking channels. so no one who slides in on low information is actually going to shift away from them unless an alternative is provided. which no one is providing, bc none of the smaller, legitimately factual and humane information outlets get any money. and if they do somehow get any traction, this usually puts them under threat - see also, the incredible bipartisan unity of taking out hasan piker. lmao