How do you imagine Fenris and Anders might be able to overcome their differences and work together?
Oh wow. Okay. I should’ve seen this one coming. Well, first of all, I shamelessly pick and choose what works for me from canon, and subscribe (conveniently) to the whole “Varric probably got some things wrong...” when it comes to this, and a whole lot of other things. I head canon that he definitely exaggerated their rivalry, or misrepresented it in some ways, for his own reasons (to show how both sides were super extra at times? IDK...he did enough of that with Meredith and Orsino, I guess, but Varric strikes me as someone who loves to troll morality discoursers). I find it really hard to imagine two people willingly working side-by-side, experiencing everything that they have together, for so many years and not realizing that they have so many things in common (a passionate desire for J/justice, both having been abused/enslaved/imprisoned/held against their will, both with experience as fugitives/being hunted, etc).
That being said, I still write Fenris as initially very defensive/fearful/untrusting of everyone, but especially mages, for good reason! I also think Anders is kind of a little shit (also, for reasons!), and he enjoys poking and prodding him on this (because he feels safe enough to do it...). In one world state, Fenris develops a sort of crush on both Anders and Hawke, and he doesn’t know what to do about that, either (until he does, like, a decade later). I head canon that Justice actually intervenes a few times (and Hawke certainly tries). I haven’t really published very many of my silly drabbles on this (oh, maybe I should?), but there’s a moment (it’s totally cliche, and I know it’s not very original), where Fenris really needs healing magic, but is terrified and refuses to let Anders help him, and Anders refuses to treat him without his consent (they are both very stubborn, aren’t they?), and so Justice takes over and promises Fenris he won’t let Anders harm him. And this is sort of a turning point in their friendship.
By the time Anders blows up the Chantry, Fenris has become very close with his found family and he is far more loyal to them than to any “side” of some big political debate. He’s seen that the Templars (in Kirkwall, at least) are just as abusive and corrupt as the Magisters in Tevinter, that the Chantry has done nothing about it, that not all mages are out to enslave him (again, in this house, we ignore Anders approving of Hawke giving him back to Danarius because THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN in my playthroughs), and he’s just kinda like, “kaffas...I guess I have a friend who’s a mage now (two, actually, because he and Merrill become quite close friends and have weekly tea, too, in my head canon!), and I’m certainly not on team ‘lyrium-crazed ranting bitch,’ so I’m gonna fight along with my idiot friends...”
Lol...sorry anon. This is not a very satisfying answer (and I admit I haven’t taken Anders’ POV much on this because most of my writing has been Hawke or Fenris-centric so far), but I’m super grateful for the poke to think about it (and also maybe share more of my fics that deal with this!). In both of the things I’m writing that focus on them after DA2, Anders has been absent for a few years, and in that absence, Fenris has continued to develop a more nuanced understanding of both his feelings for the mage, and also mages in general, as he’s out either killing slavers (who aren’t all mages) or laying low with Hawke outside of Tevinter (where mages are still a marginalized group). And to Anders’ surprise when they finally reconnect, he’s not too proud to admit that what Anders did actually worked (*whispers* omg...Anders was right!).