#pro anders

this is still the funnest easter egg

I have been thinking about Anders again 🙏 praying for him in the new game, so excited to play!

Forever bothered by the sharp difference in how Aveline losing Wesley is treated compared to Anders losing Karl

Because conceptually, it should be very similar.

Shortly after meeting Hawke, the person they love is subjugated to a fate they deem in some way to be worse than death or nothing more than a slower version of it. Their loved one pleads with them to end their suffering, to die at the hands of the person they know would not wish to seem them languish. And they make the choice to put the blade to their partner out of love and mercy.

They should in some way be seen as mirrors, even interestingly enough happening to polar opposite couples. A Templar and a knight. A circle mage and apostate. Like not that I think it's completely fair because mages are systematically opressrd but like- if there was any like point of comparison for a more pro-templar character and pro-mage character to have a *oh we're not so different, you and i~* moment that'd kind of be the thing to narrow in on

But somehow the writer don't seem to recognize the way these losses mirror one another and treat them differently in a way that makes my teeth itch

Hawke has the option to tell Aveline whether or not she wants to kill Wesley is her choice. You the player are allowed expressly to prioritize her freedom/autonomy in the narrative. This is then reinforced twice as the "right" choice, initially in gaining friendship with her for using it. Then again when Aveline tells the story of her father's death and reinforces how much being allowed the space to make her own choices, especially in connection with grief matters to her. How much having someone hold her hand and say "you're choice" matters to her.

There is no "your choice" option with Anders and Karl. The player can only either encourage him to kill Karl or encourage him not to. For the mages, who have had far less autonomy and freedom on their lives- one of which has just been forcibly lobotomized, the player doesn't get to prioritize their autonomy and instead can only assert their opinion. This is also the case despite, arguably the choice to kill Karl being an even grayer area morally. Wesley on all levels was doomed to die, it was just a matter of a quick pain free or a longer drawn out affair. Being made tranquil is a death of the self, your personhood, but not your actual physical life. But instead of allowing a softer choice that let's Anders choose, you can only assert one side or the other.

Additionally, just like Aveline- Anders narrative has... kind of a lot to do with freedom and autonomy, so it also would have made sense for this option to reinforce that value in him- but no.

Then, Aveline's loss of Wesley is reflected on fairly often and is treated with a lot of kindness through out most the narrative. A lot of Hawke's initial dialogue options are then checking in on how she's coping with her grief a full year later.

Immediately following Karl's death and I do mean immediately- you can talk to Anders about Justice. You can flirt with Anders. And sometimes if you click on him, he mentions Karl didn't deserve to be lobotomized.

All meaningful dialogue regarding his loss of Karl is not just romance locked. But in vanilla game, gender locked as well. You literally cannot "check in" with him about having to kill someone he at the very least clearly cared about- unless you wait at least 3 years and are a man who has sex with him.

And also also almost immediately following that being how Anders joins your gang of freaks- everyone is complaining about how he's too whiny, angry, and a bummer while mages are being actively oppressed and also he JUST HAD TO KILL SOMEONE HE LOVES BECAUSE OF IT

And to be clear on this piss on the poor website, I fucking love Aveline. This is a not "she didn't deserve this care narratively" post, this is I wish he'd have gotten a fraction of the same treatment post.

Hawke doesn't get the slightest option of "Hey, we can talk about the glowing in a bit- are you okay? I'm so sorry that happened, are you okay? Do you need a minute?"

in every single oppressed mage she sees her little sister, she sees her father, she sees anders. all of the mages she loves. she's never been afraid of mages, and always ALWAYS was so damn angry that she could never make a difference when she saw the fear of being discovered in the eyes of her family.

i think she might support anders and mage freedom even more than some mage hawkes would, because her dedication to the cause is so selfless and there is no internalized self doubt or hatred of being a mage to contend with (which i think hawke as a mage might deal with). i think anders would love her even more for that dedication.

this hawke is usually purple in her dialogue but when it comes to mage's rights she is red and she would have helped anders if he told her his plan. kirkwall is literally an authoritarian police state after all, and the chantry is a huge symbol of that power.

Hawke

Anders

There was no compromise and he knew it, but he was still too subconsciously bound to the Circle's teachings (its their job to break their mages after all, even Anders suffers this when not overridden by Justice), too bound to the idea of being an exemplary mage and a palatable leader to look that idea in the face and accept it. He had desperate measures in his back pocket that he could never get himself to pull out until the biggest step was already taken by someone else.

I will never accept the "Okay, we tried everything but then Anders fucked it up, time to bring out ✨The Harvester✨" ending they gave us. Orsino was radicalized by seeing his friends and peers driven to suicide through oppression and unlivable conditions. He saw the worst that the templars and Chantry could do, he saw the oppression and looming hammer about to come down on them.

For all the pain and loss he suffered and the good he tried to do, some part of him had to know they'd already reached the point of no return and protest and talking were no longer an option.

This (and the fact that Orsino being a boss fight was an EA decision, not an intentional writer choice) is all the more reason why I simply headcanon that he survived and Varric covered for him with a damning and conclusive end that distanced him from the uprising and Anders's views/actions enough to allow his escape.