#mageguardian

For the Anders outfits, there are 2 ways that can help in terms of thinking about it: 1) This is actually a fairly common coat-style in Ferelden, but not in Kirkwall which is why it was unique to Anders in DA2, or 2) the rebelling mages have taken Anders’ aesthetic as a symbol of revolution. So depending on how radical you want to get lmao, both of those work comfortably for me (the truth is probably something in between tbh). The mages allying with Tevinter is kind of the same thing about how Anders sees Tevinter: he doesn’t see all of the awful things about Tevinter because he’s too focused on the good things. Most mages are oppressed and abused their entire lives; of course many of them would look at a place where their talents are celebrating and see paradise. It’s then easy to overlook whatever negative details they know about and blame them on Chantry propaganda. After all, the Chantry was wrong to demonize mages using hyperbole, so maybe they’re wrong about Tevinter too? They must be, right? Which is an understandable point of view, and of course one Tevinter would be foolish not to take advantage of if they could

(I will also add that the Chantry is mistaken about Tevinter in the focus on blood magic as opposed to, you know, the slavery and all that. But you know)

The companions are hard to deal with; on the last playthrough I did, I actually ended up not recruiting Vivienne because it’s impossible to play pro-mage and have her not hate you (also, bioware, you know that heavy anti-mage opinions are unpopular, so you choose to make the only black woman the most heavily anti-mage companion we’ve seen in the games? Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all…). But the fact that a fair number of them are pro-mage or at least mage-neutral (e.g. Iron Bull is fine with magic, just doesn’t like demons and weird fucky shit) does help some. I know for a fact it’s possible to get full approval with everyone while playing pro-mage aside from Vivienne, which helps some

Now, I do admit to sympathizing with Cassandra because as much as I disagree with her on mages, she does have an open mind. She wants to do what’s right and wants to destroy the corruption and problems with the Chantry and the Circles. That’s noble, I just don’t think she understands how radical the steps needed to actually achieve that really are. If made Divine, she tries to rework the Circles and ends up with basically what we started with, which sucks heavily, but I do believe she tries. She respects the power mages have, but she doesn’t hate or fear them. She aims to find a way that everyone is safe and cared for, she just doesn’t realize that such a thing isn’t possible when an entire group of people are treated like prisoners, even if it’s a nicer prison. I think she could perhaps be convinced, with time, because she is very rational in her opinions, but it doesn’t happen within the game. Leliana, especially hardened, becoming Divine might actually help her with this in time, but we’ll likely never know for sure. Still, she wants to do the right thing and does struggle with what that might be, it’s just that she needs to go further in her attempts and re-examine her biases if she actually wants to achieve that

For Cullen… it’s difficult. When I first played, I sympathized with him more than I do now. It was after thinking about it and reading some meta that I started to sympathize less, and replaying DA2 really sealed it for me. The thing with Cullen is he could have been written in a way that I would sympathize with, it’s just that he wasn’t. His arc is largely focused on recovery and a bit of realizing that the Chantry is pretty awful to Templars as well and this is actually true. Considering most Templars are Chantry-raised orphans who have been indoctrinated their entire lives and people who need a good, respected, decent-paying job to feed their families, it’s clear who the Chantry recruits. Then you get them addicted to drugs they don’t actually need to perform their duties (see: the fact that Alistair is capable of Templar abilities despite never taking lyrium) so they can never leave. It’s convenient to have your military arm forced to comply with whatever you want else be left penniless and addicted to a substance you control. And then take your leashed attack dogs and point them at another group (the mages) they’ve been taught to hate and give them carte blanche, then voila, you get abuses

That said, at no point does he actually address his own responsibility and the abuses he himself has inflicted upon the mages in his care. I understand he went through trauma in the Circle, but so does virtually every mage, and he was responsible for some of that trauma himself. That needs to be acknowledged. You don’t get a free pass to be an abuser just because you’ve experienced trauma. iirc there are some moments where he talks about guilt, but there’s no action to follow, no demonstration of such. I remember thinking if there was just a moment of him apologizing to someone he’d hurt in Kirkwall, some sort of tearful ‘my god, what have I done? I am so sorry’ moment, that would’ve finished it nicely and then I would’ve really liked him. But as it is, that moment doesn’t happen and we’re left with a half-assed redemption arc contained within a full-fledged recovery arc. So like… there is a little bit of sympathy, but it’s very much a case of ‘your tragic backstory explains your actions, not excuses them’. You cannot say ‘mages are not people’ and expect to be believed when you say you feel guilty but never show repentance for it. I needed him to show me proof, not just words, that he had changed and regretted his part in mage oppression, which he did not do. Bottom line is: I needed more. Now, whether that is actually a character fault or bioware choosing not to write it that way because they didn’t feel he needed to truly repent, well, I’ll leave that up for debate lmao