A False Dichotomy: The Circles or Chaos
I feel like in both Asunder and Inquisition, there's something interesting about the narrative choice of the mages disbanding the Circle of Magi entirely. Because before the second to last chapter of Asunder, this was never the argument: it was to make the Circle of Magi independent and free. That's actually what the vote at the White Spire is about: independence, freedom, and presumably secularization of the Circle of Magi and its mages. But then, more or less out of nowhere, it's about disbanding the Circle entirely. And I feel like this provokes a sort of false sense of, I guess, anarchy and lawlessness even though there would be no way mages wouldn't be interested in organizing themselves or education (see the eventual secular College of Enchanters).
There's not even an attempt to rebrand it as "we, the mages of Southern Thedas, do hereby dissolve the Circles and renounce submission to the Chantry and Templars, and reform as a free College of Enchanters to serve the people in magical affairs, free from persecution, in cooperation with the people of Thedas". So it makes the rebel mages falsely look like people that don't really have a plan or interest in organization. Even though they literally have pamphlets that state they are organizing and are interested in working with legitimate and impartial governments (Rebel Mages codex). And then I'm not even allowed to argue with characters like Vivienne who can say things like "We need an institution to protect and nurture magic. Maker knows, magic will find neither on its own" and I can't say back "Yeah, let's get a secular organization of mages without the chantry" even though it's so obvious. And it's what happens anyways! So throughout Inquisition, there's a false dichotomy regarding how to handle mages: you can have organization and schools under the domination of the Chantry (Circle of Magi), or you can have vague notions of freedom with no follow up but will be basically be framed as anarchy and chaos and no schools for mages. But it's absolutely proven wrong because you can get the College of Enchanters at the end!
Asunder, Ch 5: "It was she, after all, who had led the College of Enchanters to vote against independence from the Chantry prior to its closure"
Asunder, Ch 17: "Fiona campaigned diligently for independence from the Circle."
Asunder, Ch 18: "I am putting forward a motion to separate the Circle of Magi from the Chantry."
Asunder, Ch 22: "If we fight, we fight as one. We declare the Circle dead, and with it any attempt by the templars or the Chantry to govern us."
Asunder, Ch 22: "As Grand Enchanter of the Circle of Magi, I hereby call for a vote on our independence."
Asunder, Ch 22: "The realization that the Circle of Magi was irrevocably finished had left a question in its wake: What now? It wasn't something he could face yet, and so he'd left."
