Why Anders was right
Just to be clear I've never posted a long post/rant/meta before so yeah.
Ok let me talk about the opinion that the templar/mage war is of gray morality and that what Anders did was wrong etc.
For starters I'm new to the game, and I played DA:I before anything and what I gathered from it over all regarding the mages (I'd always sided with the mages btw) is the following:
· Mages are dangerous
· They're angry for something
· Templars are like rabid dogs they kill anything in their way
· If you're a mage you always hear the demons whispers offering you things
· ALWAYS say no to anything offered to you from a demon
· If you say yes you become an abomination
· Abomination bad only solution is murder
· Blood Magic is bad
· The chantry is bad because Exalted March
· Tevinter is bad but there're good people trying to change it i.e..(Dorian & May)
So, yeah there's a lot more considering that I've played several playthroughs (probably four or something) but that’s the jest of it so lets dive in into my experience as a new player. (MAJOR SPOILERS for DA)
So I play origins and considering the fact that I'm a POC minority I prefer to play with characters who are minorities to get some of that power back. Anyway, My first Origin Char was Fem Surana. The reason I picked it was also because I wanted to understand why Dorian was so against the Harrowing and if the circles were as horrible as everyone seemed to say they are.
So I start the game and immediately I'm told that I live in a cage and that I'm not allowed to leave, and they proceed to PUT a demon in me which is the thing that you Shouldn’t do to a mage but I was like ok that sounds like a harrowing to me so lets go. Anyways a bunch of armored men are standing around me to eventually kill me but hey no pressure. So I go and I meet Mouse who is really nice. I don’t really know how the fade works but I know that Solas used to frolic around there so I was like huh nice, might as well get some help. So I meet this spirit of Valor who gets angry at being compared to a demon and I'm like huh, so not all creatures of the fade are bad. OK cool whatever. Then I meet this demon of sloth who asks a bunch of questions and then teaches mouse how to shapeshift and I'm like huh so a demon can be helpful if you outsmart them. And I head off to kill Mr. demon inside of me because I don’t want to end up like ser mouse.
So I meet this demon of rage who had this arrangement with Mouse and I'm like ok makes sense, how'd he survive all along otherwise and who am I to judge so whatever. We kill the demon and Then mouse is like would you give me a body? And I was of two minds about it, like he helped me but also that sounded like a thing a demon would say, and I don’t think that harrowings were as simple as killing a demon and so I called him out on it and he told me "Keeps your wits about you, true tests never end".
So what I got from this experience is that Templars can kill a mage if they take too long fighting a demon that was forcefully put in them and no one says a thing about it? Ok moving on,,
I meet the tranquil who can't feel??? Because they're a danger to themselves and others?? How is that ok but moving on,,
I met Jowan who is rumored to be a blood mage and I immediately remember the pride demon's words but I still help him because he's my friend and its not fair that he cant love because he's a mage. Then I learn about phylacteries. And bOY aren't those blood magic based but the chantry knows best right? I didn't like Irving much but then it turned out he and a bunch of templars KNEW that Jowan was a blood mage planning to escape and I felt betrayed because 'How dare he use blood magic ew'.
Anyway, fast forward to broken circle where the templars have a right to kill everyone in the tower? Because of a bunch of abominations who they were TRAINDE to deal with and let me tell you how angry I was when I saw CHILDREN inside the tower. Like??? Its one thing taking kids from their homes and its completely another to decide to kill a shit ton of innocent kids because "they might be abominations". I meet Cullen who was really kind at the beginning and he tells me to kills all the mages and I'm like oh so ALL templars are like this. So we save the circle, I learn about how the whole thing was because mages wanted their freedom and how it was clear that Uldred was grooming a bunch of mages to become blood mages and no one did anything.
I finished the game and played a Fem Cousland because being a queen should give you at least some authority to change the mess in the system
So far when I finished Origins (DLCs included) I found out that:
· Blood magic isn't really bad its just dangerous and powerful
· The chantry isn't just bad because Exalted March but also because the circles
· Circles are bad because:
· Kids are taken from their families and brainwashed to believe they're cursed and sinners (see Keili)
· Mages have no privacy, and Templars can do whatever they want to them without consequences
· Mages don’t have the basic right of loving and being loved Any child born in a circle is automatically given to the chantry
· Mages are often assaulted, raped, tortured, and isolated underground in the darkness without anyone protesting it
· All the of that happens to mages while they have a voice in their heads telling them it could all go away if they just said yes.
· Not all possessed mages are bad (Faith and Wynne)
· A spirit of Justice believed STRONGLY that what was happening to the mages was unjust and needed to be changed
· Templars are an army and the chantry holds their leash
· Templars are automatically right without question
· Templars are so self-entitled they believe themselves to be above the gray wardens and the crown
· Anders who was Isolated in the Darkness for a year thought himself to be one of the lucky ones
· A literal cat felt so angry at the templars it was possessed by a rage demon and killed a few of them
I'm not going to go into details about my DA2 playthrough other than it was a love at first sight with Anders and that my Mage Hawk was VERY Pro mage and Anti Chantry/ Templars but yeah
· Mages get raped and its not even a secret and they are threatened by tranquility if they say no
· Mages are accused of blood magic if they resist their rapists
· Like if you don’t kill Karras he rapes Alain and a tranquil says it in broad daylight that she belongs to Alrik
· Again, A voice in their head always says that they could leave it all behind with a word
· There is a reason why willpower is important for mages
· The chantry does NOTHING to help the mages or even the refuges
· The chantry is ADORNED with statues of gold that could literally feed house and cloth the whole of Kirkwall and then some
· Everyone patronizes Anders when he talks about the injustice that is happening to the mages and Almost always tell him that he's being a spoilsport
· The knight-Commander is actively breaking the law and turning mages who passed their harrowing into tranquil and no one does anything
· She literally does it randomly because (She'd rather kill innocents than let mages get away)
· A templar literally says that mages are not (people like you and me) -wow just, wow-
· Meredith pretends that she's righteous and speaks of how much it saddens her that she's doing this while she is literally killing mages left and right and turning them to tranquil
· Not only that but also parading them to prove her power
· Like really, they don't take care of real blood mages its ALWAYS me who take care of that, they're too busy terrorizing the innocent ones of course
· They literally had one job and couldn't do it (look at what happened with Quentin)
· Elthina keeps pretending that she cant pick sides and that she cant interfere
· The LAW is being broken, people are getting Raped and all she says is “The Chantry is not a domineering father with the whip always in hand. She is a gentle mother, who knows that her children learn best when allowed to learn themselves.”
· She Continues to do nothing and even says that she wont leave her flock
· What flock?? She doesn't help ANYONE
· When she's pressed she says she can't side against the templars
· She is Meredith's superior and didn’t do anything
· She would literally cover up the viscounts son's murder if presented with the choice
· Oh and She Knew about the whole mess Petrice was causing and was complacent
· No seriously what flock?
· Meredith asks for the right of the Annulment without reason and she doesn't do shit about it
· "I cannot take sides. We are all the Maker's creatures, but magic allows abuses beyond the scope of mortals."
· Like yeah sure it’s the mages who are abusing the poor people
Anyways I think that’s enough to tell how fucked up the chantry and the templar order is, like a literal templar didn't put his daughter in there for a reason guys. Now lets talk about Anders and Justice
The first thing EVERYONE needs to know is that Justice wasn't corrupted. Its so fake to say that he is when he rallied the towns people against the Baroness and promised Aura revenge against not only the darkspawn who killed Kristoff but also the one who sent them-the mother-.
Justice was always with getting back people's rights with force. He is portrayed in the fade wearing an armor. He's not compassion, he can't be corrupted by anger because Anders anger was just, Justice actually encouraged it even before their merge. Also, for people who say that Anders is an Abomination or whatever I don’t see them saying that about Wynne. Also you get to meet and talk to Justice in the fade in Night Terrors and he introduces himself as Justice, and he is the only one who doesn't sell you out and he even disapproves if you agree with Torpor's offer.
Justice was never corrupted; he probably would never had offered Anders the merge if Nate hadn't said that it was alright if they were both willing. He is constantly urging everyone to take action against oppression and injustice and he didn't change in DA2, one could argue that he is more frustrated and as angry as Anders is. The Darkspawn were doing what is their nature after all but everyone in Kirkwall turns a blind eye to the injustice even though they should know better.
Then there is Anders. A spirit healer. Who undoubtedly has seen so much of the circle's cruelty. He must have been there for the mages who needed help after being assaulted by the templars, physically or sexually, he must have been of the mages who helped deliver the children born in the circle and witnessed firsthand how they were taken from their still tired mothers. He was locked in solitary for a whole year and let me tell you how that was a basically the templars way of turning him into an abomination so that they could get rid of him since they couldn't make him tranquil without breaking the law. Anders who kept running and running because all he wanted was to have the same rights as any other person. Anders who is surprised when you agree with him that mages should be free, when you defend him against the templars in Awakening.
Even after helping in Amaranthine he moves to Kirkwall and opens a free clinic to help the poor and the refugees at the cost of his own health and even possibly his freedom. How much would they get if they reported him to the templars. Yet he still helps them so much so that they are protective of him, Fereldans whose country didn’t even have a court mage for a reason unknown but assumed to be their mistrust of magic, they intercept four armored and armed people who could easily kill them just to protect him. He works day and night in the clinic and also help the mages with the mage underground for 6 whole years. He does everything the Chantry and the grand cleric should be doing without asking for anything in return. He spends so much time writing his manifesto to peacefully convince people that mages are people, they are just the same as anyone else. When he tries to convince Hawk (I stumbled upon it on YouTube I never actually got this dialogue) by reading his manifesto he sounds so earnest and listening to him is so heartbreaking because you can tell that he is doing all he could to convince people that mages deserve to be treated like people.
Siding with him and helping him with Karl makes him fall for you, for such a small thing too. Like, he clearly never had anyone take his side before (probably only the warden commander but even they leave), flirting with him makes him shocked that you would flirt with "an Abomination" and he constantly tells you that he can't give you a normal life and that you should chose someone else even though its probably killing him to say that. I read a lot about how everyone seems to gaslight him and I was surprised that people would actually do that when any and everything he ever brought up was proved true, also that might have been because I bring Varric and Isabella/Merrill with me since they don't clash with him as strongly as everyone else. Anyway. Anders is kind and patient and strong and don't even get me started on how passionate and caring he is and he always makes sure that Hawk knows how much he appreciates him. I won't say that he's perfect considering how he treats Merrill but then again almost everyone treats her like that and its undoubtedly the chantry speaking whether they know it or not. There is also the issue that he believes that blood mages are "giving the mages a bad name" when they really are just doing what they can to get by.
By the beginning of Act 3 Anders is seeing that six years has been spent helping mages peacefully and pleading to the grand cleric did nothing to change how cruelly the mages are being treated. The mage underground collapsed, only he remains and that’s probably due to the champion's protection and Justice. Meredith sends for the right of annulment for no reason other than her cruelty and paranoia and Orsino keeps trying to compromise with her and failing because he doesn't have any true power against her. The grand cleric is blatantly ignoring the plight of the people and isn't looking into Meredith's madness. Not even the seekers were called when their intervention is clearly needed. No one is doing anything to help his people and Justice must have been angry at what was happening too. So he has to take action because any other choice was exhausted. He doesn't involve Hawk because he fears for him and wouldn't wish to endanger him, not to mention that he believes with all his heart that Hawk would kill him after he does what he must do.
Now don't get me wrong. I firmly believe that a place of worship no matter the religion or its faults shouldn’t be attacked. And I mean with that that Sebastian shouldn't be there with a weapon, the templars shouldn't have arranged an ambush in there, Hawk shouldn't have killed the templars there or Hayder and his men. Petrice shouldn't have killed Saemus and put him there and the Qunari shouldn't have killed her there. Why? Because its supposed to be a place of worship, its supposed to be a refuge for those who are religious. But in reality it isn't. The Kirkwall chantry didn't have a single innocent soul in it. It wasn't a place of worship. It was a center of oppression and fanaticism. The people inside who were supposed to be women of faith were inciters of violence and if not inciters they were spectators who did nothing to change the injustice before them. Neutrality in the face of evil is complicity. And they, who were supposed to protect the people and stand by them were complacent in the abuse and corruption that was happening. They sat in their place so high above everyone else as if the law didn’t include them. As if they were above the petty concerns of the people, above the starving, the poor, the sick, and the weak. Above the mages who were being massacred tortured and terrorized in an isolated jail island that used to and still housed slaves. Because that is what mages were treated like.
What Anders did was right because it was the ONLY option that was left. Because whether he did it or not Meredith would've annulled the circle, she would've done it and no one would have stopped her. What Anders did gave the mages a chance to fight back. It gave the mages everywhere a hope that the chantry wasn't invincible and that the templars weren’t infallible.
Fiona was the leader of the mage rebellion that is true, but Anders put his life on the line to make the mages know and believe that they were people deserving of their freedom. Not all mages wanted to be free of the circle that is true, but that doesn’t change the fact that many do and that most of those who don't were brainwashed into believing that they are dangerous and that they were incapable of taking care of themselves.
When I say that Anders was right I don't say it lightly. I say it because I have seen what other options are there I have seen what the chantry and the templars were doing and I KNOW that no matter what there was no other choice for things to happen. The only thing I regret is that I couldn't participate more actively in Anders' plan and that I couldn't reassure him that he was right, that Justice was not corrupt or a demon. That what they were doing was what must be done and that they were brave to have done it, and that no matter what I would never side against them.
So anyone who says that there is a gray morality in the war clearly has never tasted oppression or been subjugated and treated as less than human, because anyone who has would understand that there is no gray morality when it comes to this. There is siding with systematic oppressors and there’s siding with the oppressed. No in between.
