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ivythefangrill

this time of the year again

9597tk

𝘮 𝘦 𝘢 𝘯 𝘥 𝘺 𝘰 𝘶? 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

★ like + rb if you save pls.

fadefox

messy morning Fenders (◡‿◡✿)

ripflemeth

fenris and anders fic where anders manages to stay in darktown all those years without getting thrown into the gallows bc it’s fenris killing anyone who tries to come for the mage

notebooks-and-laptops

I do think one thing that's interesting about Anders and Fenris and one thing that goes a long way to explain their antagonistic interactions is that I truly think Anders sees himself in Fenris, but Fenris is resistant to seeing himself in Anders.

And this isn't me saying Anders is in the right for any of this. Anders absolutely point blank seems to refuse the idea that Fenris's experiences could have been unique and different to the experiences of being a circle mage, or that his trauma surrounding mages might be justified.

BUT Anders sees that Fenris is a slave and a major point on Anders manifesto is basically that all mages consistitute a slave class in southern thedas ("mages deserve to be free" repeated again and again). So Anders just can't understand why Fenris would ever side with the templars against fellow enslaved people. It seems absolutely hypocritical and wrong to him that Fenris would do so.

I also think Anders can't even begin to understand what Tevinter is like. Anders views mages as oppressed, and he knows that theoretically there is a land where they are not, where they are the oppressors, but the concept is alien to him and so I think he probably subconsciously can't believe that the mages Fenris dealt with were actually privileged in any real sense.

Meanwhile, Fenris doesn't see mages as enslaved at all. "I see no oppression here, only fear" he says, when you enter the gallows with him for the first time. So Anders comparing his plight to what Fenris went through, for Fenris, is not only unjustified but also rude. Fenris went through actual slavery. Anders pretending he did too is, well. To Fenris that's horrid.

And God they give me such brainrot because they are SO similar yet every conversation they have is a breakdown in communication because they cannot scrape that first middle ground with one another even when they're trying to do so. They see flickers of themselves in the other, and that leads them to hate the other more because if the other is so like them why don't they understand. Its tragic. I love them.

ratedt4t

5 Song OTP Playlist

tagged by the amazing @little–abyss who challenged me to curate an otp playlist since most of mine are character or particular story-focused.

let me tell you, it was hard to choose because every time I’d have them picked out another song would come along and I’d be “no wait, this one!!” but here it is.

the otp I’ve written the most for on dragon age recently is anders/fenris! they are a hot mess so it was interesting to find songs for them. I feel almost like the playlist covers the course of their relationship in kirkwall in my head. …this better not inspire new fic in me.

To My Enemies - Saint Motel

To my enemies / Those were the best days of our lives / When our hate made us feel so alive / So wrong it’s right

the most playful song on my playlist for these two. it’s bouncy, and I feel can generally see it as a reflection of their early attraction on both sides.

Jailbreak - AWOLNATION

I’ve been working on a jailbreak / Got no time for a new fate / Any moment they’ll replace me / Should’ve tried to get to know you / I’ve been working on my timing / Insecurity beside me / But, your taste is so inviting

as their relationship develops they keep orbiting each other despite their seemingly disparate goals.

What Kind of Man - Florence + the Machine

You’re a holy fool all coloured blue / Red feet upon the floor / You do such damage, how do you manage? / Tryna crawl in back for more /And with one kiss/ You inspired a fire of devotion /That lasted 20 years / What kind of man loves like this

a song more strongly from anders’ pov after fenris recovers some of his memories and they fight bitterly, both eventually convinced the other is going to abandon the other.

Landmines - BELLSAINT

Holding on to you is like guarding a grenade / Slow dancing on land mines / It’s only a matter of time / Oh but I can’t resist, oh I can’t resist / Slow-dancing on land mines / Love is a target with my heart painted on it

fenris’ pov on loving a mage possessed by a spirit. no way this can go well.

Shattering the Hourglass - Deep Sea Diver

Do I have to be strong enough / To know what to do/ I don’t know what to do / I can see you miles away /Glowing like a gamma ray /And you slipped through my fingertips / Did I make the most of it? / Set me free

the moments before denouement.

tagging some of my mutuals, @ivalane & @bxdcubes if you feel like doing it, and any of my followers feel free to tag yourself and share! I want to see what everyone is listening to.

story-kat

Art by ermesinthe

Posted with Permission (reprint/edit and/or commercial use prohibited)

notebooks-and-laptops

I'm sure I'm not the only one to say this but also the line "I'm charming" from Anders is such a deeply painful line when you think about it. He says it in this banter with Fenris:

And while it's totally a dick move for Anders to say what he does here, it can also be read in the light of genuine curiosity.

I'm going to go on a minor tangent about Fenris and Anders here in order to make my point. I'm not the only one to point out that Anders and Fenris mirror one another in plenty of ways. I think in act 2 they come closest to seeing this and acknowledge it. As that one famous post points out, in decent Fenris seems to genuinely be offering some form of acknowledgement that he understands what it is like to kill someone you wanted to protect (as he did with the Fog warriors). But also in act 2 Anders asks Fenris if he's ever considered suicide as a slave here:

I have thought a lot about why Anders would just...ask this pretty hefty question. And my conclusion is that he's asking because he considered suicide in the circle, and he's semi-trying to connect with Fenris over something which he believes perhaps only Fenris (out of everyone in the da2 group) will understand.

And that's what I think he's doing when he tells Fenris he doesn't have the temperament of a slave. He IS being a dick, make no mistake. But also...Anders doesn't get how Fenris could have survived under the wrath of people who had such power over him, if he wasn't charming.

Because Anders 'is charming'

When Fenris asks why the templars didn't kill Anders and Anders says its because he's charming, he's not being glib. That's CANONICALLY why despite his multiple escape attempts he did not get made tranquil. Look at this extract from chapter 5 of World of Thedas Vol. 2:

Anders being charming LITERALLY saved his life through multiple escape attempts. And considering the way he acts in Origins with that sort of easy jokey manner he partly puts to rest by da2 its clear he has grown up knowing he HAS to act like that in order to keep himself alive. Fenris genuinely puzzles him because how could he possibly survive in a situation where someone had immense power over him, if he was not charming.

And it's so sad. This one little piece of banter is so sad. Its sad because Anders HAD to put on that front to stay alive. Its sad because act 2 is the closest Anders and Fenris come to seeking an understanding with each other, but because of their prejudices against the other it ALWAYS misses the mark and ends up coming out bitchy and misheard by the other.

And I just. It makes me feel emotions.

high-dragon-bait

Okay I’m just going to say it: I always found the take that “Fenris and Anders’ relationship is wasted potential” kind of irritating. At least in the way most people mean when they say it: Anders and Fenris never found common ground, and that is a waste of potential

I do agree that there are some writing let-downs in their relationship, I just don't agree that the fact that they never reach a common ground is part of it.

It is true that Fenris and Anders have more in common than differences, their trauma is ultimately based in the same thing: being held and tormented against their will by an oppressive system. If you pay attention, the narrative, the characters, and Fenris and Anders themselves are aware of this. Here's a little snippet of it shown in this Legacy dialogue

The game knows they're alike. It's not that they can't see there's common ground between them. They can. The problem is: Fenris is healing, and Anders is not

I'm going to show you more banter screenshots now

Specifically of Fenris and Anders' banter with Varric, in acts 2 and 3

Just bear with me, we'll start with Fenris

Fenris and Varric in act 2

Fenris and Varric in act 3

Now Anders

Anders and Varric in act 2

Anders and Varric in act 3

There are more banters that illustrate this point but I think these four are the strongest and also I would like to go to sleep at some point tonight.

Fenris is healing from his past, if you look at his banters as a whole, you can see across all characters he gets more open, humorous, and talkative throughout all acts. Anders does the exact opposite. Anders gets more closed off, cold, and in act 3 you'll notice he rarely speaks before being spoken to unless he's following up on a previous conversation.

It makes sense, to me at least, why they never become friends. It isn't because Anders is a mage, Bethany is a mage, anti-circle, and Fenris loves her. Don't believe me? Look on the wiki or search "Bethany" on my blog and you'll find some of their interactions. They're adorable.

It's because Anders is getting worse and Fenris is getting better. That's why all their conversations are just an exhausting loop and why they never seem to connect. To me, that is the story being told here. It was never about them finding a common ground, it was about paralleling two people and one who heals from their past, and one who does not. Making them on opposite sides of the mage/templar debate is meant to emphasize this.

I do want to state that I have mixed feelings about this. While I think it's a neat idea, it does also feed the "You were hurt by a system but now your hate for it consumes you" trope which I am. Not a fan of. You can also talk about how the world itself plays into this in that Fenris can escape from Tevinter but Anders can't escape from being a mage. That's all a retrospective for another day, I'm just talking about the intent behind the relationship here.

Basically what I’m trying to say is: A story may not go in the direction you want it to but that does not make the story bad, it just makes it the story you didn’t want. That is fine, but I take some issue when people treat it as an actual fault of the story rather than a matter of taste.

Like I said, there are plenty of actual writing issues in Dragon Age 2, and I do think that there are some wasted opportunities in Fenris and Anders' relationship. My biggest problem is that it doesn't go far enough. We see Anders spiral until he hits full rock bottom and destroys the Chantry. We see Fenris... go play some cards with his buddies. I think it would've been more effective if Fenris got a little farther in his healing, namely his relationship with magic. I've said that I don't think Fenris would ever fully trust magic and I don't, but it would've been neat to at least see more progress made than is actually made in the game. This I think is the consequence of Dragon Age 2 being a first draft like David Gaider said, I think if they had more time, they could've pushed this further and made it more interesting, but I do genuinely like what's there like I genuinely like the entirity of Dragon Age 2.

Anyway, that's why in my opinion, Anders and Fenris never finding a common ground isn't a problem from a narrative perspective.