Like it's literally insane because the chantry explosion is a clear trolley problem, right. People will die no matter what - Meredith sent for the right of annulment, mages were dying every day from her abuses, and she would've absolutely gone over Elthina to enact the right of annulment no matter what, yeah ? Literally the only significant differences that anders' actions caused were:
- a chantry was destroyed and thus caused the death of a dozen templars, one grand cleric, and some civilians
- security in circles across thedas tightened worsening the subsequent mage rebellion
But what it also caused, was that many mages were already out, and the others had time to prepare whilst Meredith launched her assault. Instead of Meredith doing the right of annulment in the form of a surprise attack, everyone was instantly made aware of what happened and was given a chance to either fight back or run.
The terrified mages turning to blood magic and demons in desperation in the face of the templars' attempt at annihilating them would've happened even if Anders didn't blow up the chantry. Except that on top of that, many other mages would've also likely been killed in their sleep, or generally taken by surprise in a preemptively locked gallows.
And it's even a point in asunder that although the chantry boom was a big contributing factor, it wasn't the sole reason behind the mage rebellion. It's been ten years since I read that book though so take my words with a pinch of salt lol but anders was long gone by the time the mages decided to rebel.
It's literally a clear cut trolley problem, with the options being:
-all the mages in the gallows die from a surprise attack
-some templars and civilians die alongside the grand cleric to allow innocent mages to flee and defend themselves
Death would have happened no matter what, and chaos would've ensued. There was an established mage underground before anders arrived in Kirkwall who would've no doubt risen up if Meredith went ahead with her initial plan. Meredith herself would've likely gone berserk and attacked non-mage citizen out of paranoia. The worst thing Anders did was destroy a building and kill a grand cleric, and that's fucking nothing compared to what every PROTAGONIST can do.
Inaction, in the context of da2 and especially it's 3rd act, would've ended un more innocent deaths than anders caused, but would've likely sat better in the players' conscience as an inevitability
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