#anders.

Tana Boys

I may have talked about this briefly before, but Meredith and Anders are direct foils to one another; they are representative of the extremism of both ‘sides’* in the mage/templar divide. 

Orsino plays the role of the moderate, even though as First Enchanter, her is positioned opposite to the Knight-Commander as a representative for the Circle mages. His view is that Circles can be beneficial for mages, provided they are not living under abusive, iron-fist rule, whereas Anders represents the total destruction of the Circles and elimination of the Templar Order.

Thus, Meredith is positioned as the utmost extreme example of Templar we have in the context of the games (although, Ser Alrik’s push for the ‘Tranquil Solution’, which Meredith and the Divine rejected outright, is arguably even worse, somehow, but he isn’t the one running the Gallows, thankfully). She rules with an iron fist because she believes that rigid law & order and schedules will keep mages in line, and anything out of the ordinary will be easy to spot. This of course further oppresses mages from being able to live their lives; instead, they are locked up and forced to pass trials to show a control of their magic, and should they not pass, they can die for it or be made into tranquil mages and lose all sense of themselves to be controlled. 

Anders’ solution, of destroying the entire institution in Kirkwall is not without its issues either - in this sense, the Chantry itself was destroyed, killing the Grand Cleric, but also potentially injuring and killing innocent civilians in the name of freedom and justice, destroying parts of the city in the fallout, AND forcing Meredith’s hand - and yes, it IS unfair that Meredith, in her crazed, paranoid red-lyrium idol state, went ahead and invoked the Rite of Annulment** in the name of justice and retribution for the people of Kirkwall - but it is a direct consequence of Anders’ actions, no matter how justified he or others believe him to be.

As such, these two are foils to one another, demonstrating how the extremists of either faction are not without consequences (ultimately, Meredith is defeated, and the Circles begin their wide-spread rebellion against their Templar jailers, but her entire justification for her course of action, political power-grabbing aside, was to protect mages from themselves as well as the non-mage civilians, influenced entirely from her early childhood trauma of watching her mage sister turn into a demon and kill their parents and 70 other people). 

* (BioWare’s representation of ‘morally grey’ areas is actually heavily skewed and the Templar Order and the Chantry are an oppressive force upon the mages, no matter which angle it is considered, so I use ‘sides’ loosely here).

SMOOCH PROMPTS.  /  52. AN ACCIDENTALLY WITNESSED KISS.

All right, reader. You want to know what it was like between Hawke and Anders before he blew Kirkwall’s chantry to shit? Here’s a story:

After Leandra’s death and funeral, Myranda started hosting gatherings. Said she couldn’t stand the estate being so quiet. She invited the whole merry band. Stocked up on expensive booze, broke out the card and board games—she even cooked! Everyone tried to make it. They knew she needed them there, even if she could never say it directly. Carver included. Though, he and his sister would get into arguments not long into the affair. They were both grieving in their own ways, and neither quite knew how to comfort the other sibling. Carver wanted to just mourn and move on. Myranda needed time to face that Leandra was gone. Eventually, he stopped coming. But that’s not what you came to read, and the repair of their relationship deserves its own chapter.

As summer bled into autumn, and autumn into winter, the gatherings became their own thing. They were held annually, every two weeks. Isabela started showing up with extra drinks. Merrill made hearth cakes. Fenris brought his deck of diamondback cards—and played a mean hand. Aveline kept them all in line and made sure the parties wouldn’t get so loud that Hawke’s neighbours would complain. Anders, as always, helped Myranda with the preparations and nursed any hangovers the morning after. And a certain roguish dwarf by the name of Varric Tethras was there to note everything down.