Taint, or basic humanity?
therealdragonnerd (who is fabulous by the way, go appreciate her thoughts as she has a ton of them to peruse) just put up an interesting thought concerning Justice and whether or not itās the Taint that makes him the bastard he is credited as in DA2 (my choice of words on that, not hers).Ā Not having played Jaws of Hakkon or even DAI (damn core-heavy programming!) I canāt really judge about the elven gods versus the Taint.Ā But I have tooled around Awakening and DA2 and Iām going to venture the answer that Justiceās transformation into Vengeance has nothing to do with the Taint and everything to do with the mire that is humanity.
See, if you spend a lot of time raising his approval and talking to him and doing the personal quests concerning Kristoffās wife and mementos, he says something very telling.Ā When talking about the widow, he mentions being able to see Kristoffās memories, and eventually wends around to admitting āfeeling envious of their loveā.Ā As the embodiment of a virtue, this is entirely foreign to him (he says as much), but the longer heās in a human host (even a deceased one) the MORE he experiences emotions as we do.Ā
First comes the envy, of the depth of feelings and the things shared between Kristoff and his wife.
Then longing (or desire) to return to the Fade and shed the complications of physical form.Ā I would say thereās a big difference between his in-Fade desire to save the people trapped there and the longing to get out of the physical and back into the familiar
[I might be getting the order of this wrong because itās been a minute since Iāve played, but I remember his dialogues about these feelings]
Anger was always present in Justice though; his responses at the witchās gates in the Fade indicate a tendency toward very proactive anger-like response to perceived injustices (Iām not saying the witch didnāt have her ass-kicking coming, Iām talking about things like when he declares pet ownership to be slavery and therefore not right).Ā His merging with Anders didnāt so much MAKE him angry as give him more things to be angry (and warped) about.Ā Anders, bless his little tortured soul, has a lot of very ugly memories of the Circle; even the bright spots of cats and Karl are tainted by their endings.Ā And you know what happens when you sit and stew over wrongdoings; it gets monstrous in your head.
DA2 is where his lust comes in; a lot of people tend to forget that lust isnāt just about gettinā that sex.Ā Justice/Anders isnāt JUST about undoing the Circle to make the plight of Mages easier, he/they are actively out to punish the whole system setup from Templar to Chantry.Ā Thatās why his target isnāt the barracks or the Gallows; Anders might say that it was to remove the option of compromise but thatās horseshit (if you ask me).Ā The Revered Mother was a mediator, but ultimately just another support of the system that perpetuates fear and distrust and power imbalances between mages and Templars; she had to be punished and made example of, and I think thatās a big indicator of the lusts that Justice/Vengeance is experiencing.
Thatās four of the major sins right there without really reaching for example (I donāt think anyway).Ā I would also accuse Justice/Vengeance of pride, given the āyou either totally agree with me or get bentā mentality (either you recognize heās right or you are a peon unworthy of education cuz youāre just totes too stupid to āgetā it) but thatās debatable and I know my justification comes down to how I take his/Andersā dialogue.Ā Greed and sloth are the only two deadlies that I canāt really think of examples he would meet if we follow the initial statement that āno scholar could tell where Justice ends and I [Anders] beginā.
Of course, that statement gets undone between Andersā borderline pro-slavery-so-long-as-it-gets-rid-of-Fenris banters and his romance dialogue where āJustice disapproves of youā bits, which I still donāt know if that was meant to be heavy-handed foreshadowing or just inconsistencies in writing.Ā Somebody who knows better than I could answer that (and frankly I hope you do because Iād really like to know!)
Anyway, my point is I donāt think itās the Taint that affects Justice, or even Andersā deep-seated (and frankly totally warranted rage) that turned him; itās the very experience of being alive that broke the virtue.Ā