#fenris analysis

[felassanis]

Fenris with purple!Hawke is so fitting for him.

NOT because it's an "opposites attract" situation. I actually don't really think they're "opposites attract" all that much. They're fitting because FENRIS IS ALSO HILARIOUS.

Sometimes Fenris gets watered down to this "brooding grump" who doesn't want to be here, and his interactions with Hawke sound like every sentence out of their mouth winds up with him rolling his eyes. And while he probably does roll his eyes from time to time it ignores the fundamental fact that HE IS SO FUCKING FUNNY AS WELL.

Fenris does, and has always, cracked jokes and it's something way too many people ignore.

His dry humour is my favourite thing about him. Because it feels like a man who has finally be able to feel safe enough to actually crack jokes and find his sense of humour again. His interactions with Isabela, Aveline, Varric, and yes even Hawke, are filled with him being sarcastic or witty or even silly. SILLY! He's SO silly!

Him talking about Varric's beard falling to his chest because "all dwarves have them", so where's his? him coyly asking if Aveline will change patrols around his house with a smug "Eventually" when she says she knows he was going to ask. Him saying to Anders "I will happily sow your mouth shut" when they talk about Qunari customs in a sarcastic tone (tho how sarcastic he's really being is a matter for debate) him hilariously entertaining "fisting" because Isabela realised he'd make a great pickpocket.

And of course..."Hawke stepped in the poopy" line. THIS MAN IS SILLY AS FUCK.

And that moment during one of your first talks with him. You pick the purple hawke option and he just...smiles. no dialogue, no brooding comment, the camera just... pans to him smiling so genuinely I wonder if he didn't fall in love a little then.

Because he can't HELP but enjoy Hawke's humour. He can't help but smile. Can't help the awkward laugh he let's out when you first flirt with him, which was such a sharp contrast from the "I hate you all, I was a slave" first impression we get. And he can't help but joke in return.

He MATCHES Purple Hawke. And it feels like a secret little side story of a man who's known nothing but running, killing, and survival being able to just...exist in safety long enough he rekindles a personality he's not been allowed to show in a long time. When was the last time he had a group of friends to joke around with? The last time he met someone he trusted enough to just...smile and laugh with? Invite them over for wine to tell stories and be...happy?

Cause that's what he wants in the end. To be happy. Just for a little while. And in Kirkwall he got that.

[kaerwrites]

Came across your write on Fenris and his initial reaction to Hawke, liked very much and since I'm trying to write on him and having difficulties on pinning my thoughts would mind sharing some of your takes on him? Like how he would fall for Hawke, why he stayed in Kirkwall or why he decided to return to him when he did? Thanks in advance.

I usually respond privately when I can, but I’m going to go ahead and post this publicaly since it’s more of a general interest thing. If you want me to take it down, please let me know and I will. 

I would not mind at all, as Fenris is one of my favorite things to talk about, and character analysis is one of my favorite things to do!

To answer your first question, I really think it depends on the Hawke, and there are a lot of different potential answers. Fenris might love a purple Hawke for their sense of humor, or he might love a blue Hawke for their charity and kindness. He might find himself admiring a warrior Hawke for their skills, or a rogue Hawke for their cleverness. I play a predominantly red mage Hawke. He will use other responses when the situation calls for it, but he is very blunt, direct, and aggressive. He is also very large and intimidating in appearance.

Fenris loves this Hawke because he is rock-steady, ready to make what he determines to be the right decision regardless of what other people think, and protective of everyone in his grasp. He is responsible with his magic and with his choices. He loves him because, under all that gruffness and power, he’s incredibly gentle. This Hawke wants to take care of people - he is constantly bullying his companions about whether or not they are eating or sleeping enough. He is trying his best to do the right thing, and, most important of all, his choices matter to him. It weighs on Hawke, when he hurts someone. He blames himself for everythings. that goes wrong, and regrets poor decision. This is partially a character flaw, but to Fenris there is a lot to be said for a mage who takes responsibility for his actions. (I like to play with contrasting Hawke against Danarius a bit, but I don’t want to overdo it.) 

The reason he loves this Hawke won’t be the same reasons he loves another Hawke, but I feel that Fenris is open to making a connection, even if he doesn’t realize that’s what he’s doing. By the time we meet Fenris, he has reached this point where he is tired of running. Over the span of his arc, he focuses less on pure survival and more on growing, on becoming a person and making a life. He longs for a family and a history and connections to other individuals. He wants his freedom to have a purpose, not be wasted - which leads me to the next question.

Under cut since this is getting so long. Sorry if it’s a bit of a mess; I’m on my first coffee of the day.

In act three, Aveline will ask Fenris if Kirkwall feels like home. If he’s been romanced, he will answer, “It feels. That itself has been a surprise.” Unromanced, he will answer that “it feels like a free place.”

Fenris is a very thoughtful, very intelligent character, and as I said before, he wants to make a life for himself that has more to it than this seemingly endless cat and mouse chase with Danarius. While I think initially Act One Fenris stays in Kirkwall out of a sense of obligation to Hawke, to repay him for his assistance in Bait and Switch, I think there’s a comfort to be found in staying in one place - in getting to know a city, and having a roof over his head, and consistent meals in his belly. In Kirkwall Fenris for the first time gets to have a life as a free man, and there is so much for him to learn and explore - all the while having the safety of someone he can trust at his back should his pursuers come knocking. I imagine those first few nights in that house were nerve wracking, but that over time it comes to mean something - having a bed to sleep in, and a roof over his head. Sleeping and waking and eating on his own schedule. Independence. It feels good to wander the city, to see how people live, to barter in the market and drink in the tavern and have friends and a lover of his own choosing.

I think a lot about what causes Fenris to leave Hawke after their night together, and what causes him to stay gone for so long. There’s the shock and trauma of the memories - gaining and then losing them again so quickly. I think there’s also a lot of self disgust regarding his past abuse, particularly in contrast to his night with Hawke. Personally, I don’t think his motivations are so much a reluctance or revulsion for being intimate with Hawke but instead more of a struggle to come to terms with the differences between his experiences with Hawke and Danarius. He enjoyed his time with Hawke. He thinks about it, I think daily from the moment he ends things. It was more than he ever expected, better than he could have dreamed, and he doesn’t know what to do with that. I think there is a lot of self-loathing going on during the time period of their separation - a lot of blaming himself for what was done to him, feeling unworthy of Hawke’s affection, thinking his keeping his distance was for the best. I believe Fenris thought Hawke would find someone better, that Hawke deserved someone better, less damaged, less used. 

Before I played the game, I kept hearing about Fenris leaving Hawke and Hawke pining away for three years. I heard a lot of “I slept with Anders to get back at that asshole” kind of talk. I definitely got the wrong impression before I played it for myself. I think those people misunderstood Fenris’s motives here. I love that Fenris got that time to figure himself out, but I also think a lot of his leaving was more for what he thought to be Hawke’s sake than his own, if that makes any kind of sense whatsoever. 

Fenris tells Hawke he was a coward for leaving instead of talking about his feelings with Hawke. I think there was a lot going on, a lot of different emotions and impulses, a lot to face. I think, more deeply, all that I said before, about wanting better for Hawke, could very well be an excuse to keep himself from thinking about the things he doesn’t want to think about.

I think, ultimately, Hawke coming face to face with Danarius was the culmination of one of Fenris’s darkest fears. Hawke saw how Danarius looked at him, heard how he talked to him. To Danarius Fenris was an object, a pet, a thing. But even with that exposed, Hawke stayed by him. Hawke supported him, fought for him. Hawke caught a glimpse of the worst Fenris had been and didn’t go running, didn’t look at him with disgust. Hawke didn’t suddenly realize Fenris was less than he’d thought he was - because Fenris was never less. He was never an object or pet or toy, and with Danrius’s death so too did the possibility that Danarius had been right die. 

I mean think about it - about how conditioned and brainwashed Fenris once was. Danarius was his world. Fenris was devoted to him, thought, for a time, he loved him. Danarius was like a god to him, and Fenris betrayed him. I think that there was always this fear in the back of his mind that maybe he had been wrong. Maybe Danarius was right, and Fenris was wrong, and he should never have run, and his freedom wouldn’t last, it was just a farce, he was fooling himself - and now Danarius is dead, and never coming back. Fenris is never going back to that life. That has to feel like an incredible weight lifting from his shoulders. That final moment of realization, having that fear finally put to rest - knowing, no, you’re free, and what was done to you really was monstrous, and you deserve whatever life you can make for yourself.

It’s a little easier to accept that Hawke loves him, after that.

[felassanis]

WHY FENHAWKE IS IMPORTANT. FENRIS ANALYSIS.

(I’m not saying you have to romance fenris, if you do not like fenris you do you boo boo romance a fucking candelstick. I just have to put this ‘disclaimer’ even tho it’s obvious, cuz we have easily offended geezers up in this fandom who have accused me before of having ‘acted superior with my romance choice’ and all that bollocks.)

Kinda long, kinda detailed, but I had a lot of fun thinking about this. Also, I am not analysing Rivalmance, I am analysing scenes and dialogue from Fenris’s ‘nicemance’’ mentions of mental illness but nothing triggering.

Fenris’s story in Dragon Age II has a outer layer and an inner layer. The outer layer is of course fighting for his freedom. Becoming a free man is his conscious desire. In order to get this Fenris will do anything from never staying in one place for too long to killing anyone that comes after him. This ‘becoming a free man’ is the obvious story regarding Fenris. It’s the first thing we learn about his arc: The slave who wants to be free. And it’s up to our Hawke to help him achieve that.

But, we also have what I call the ‘true story’. His inner layer or ‘subconscious’ desire surrounds the element of revenge, overcoming trauma and learning to move on. It’s the story of Fenris we will eventually learn about and slowly uncover as the game progresses. 

Fenris deep down wants to move on. It’s not just about being free, Fenris knows he wants to be free. He is fully aware of that. What he doesn’t acknowledge however, is that in order to be truly free he’s got to learn to accept what has happened to him, accept it was out of his control and accept that it is in the past. But....he won’t. 

I will admit, Fenris’s speech can be hella emo and overdramatic, the way he talks is extremely gothic novella and the writers could have done a better job at showing not telling. But, the reason he talks the way he does about ‘plagues in his heart’ and whatnot, is to exemplify the complete and utter turmoil this elf possesses. You can tell he’s thought about it a lot, because he talks so poetically that you can’t help but think ‘no one naturally talks likes this’ it shows he has overthought the emotions his past has caused at great lengths. I guess, you could analyse it as ‘no one talks that way, unless they’ve rehearsed it’ which yes, I think he has rehearsed it to some degree. Not to sound purposefully broody and meloncholic just for the aestheitc; he just knows with full clarity how it makes him feel and he’s able to describe it naturally in that articulated manner. 

I highly doubt he even knows he’s doing it honestly, his speech is very different from the other characters. Anders for example also suffers from trauma and mental health, but he doesn’t speak like this. For Fenris it just comes naturally...

Every time we talk to Fenris before spending the night with him is about slavery. We find him running from slavers, we kick down the doors to hunt down his slave master and he talks to Hawke about what has happened to him regarding his days of being a slave. The topic of slavery is heavily ingrained into his character but the game isn’t doing that because Bioware wants you to think ‘OOH he’s so angsty and broody! He’s such a tormented soul don’t you just love him?!’ Nah, Bioware is merely saying that this character’s past was so horrifying that he simply cannot get over it. He talks about it so much because it has engulfed him; he’s not free of the chains as Flemeth said. 

The ‘chains’ she’s referring to is that ‘slavery’ has very much swallowed his whole identity. He’s not yet willing to claw his way out of the jaw of his past. He’s both unwilling and likely unaware he talks about it so much with Hawke.

The only other conversation where it’s not heavily discussed is when him and Hawke discuss the theme of home in his first one on one. It becomes very clear that Fenris has not had a home in a long time due to being on the run, he asks Hawke why they haven’t returned to Ferelden and nearly every option Hawke has is pretty much ‘Kirkwall isn’t so bad, I’ve built a life here’ or ‘my family is here, I have roots’ to which Fenris will sound...longing. Exhibiting a clear desire to have his own place to call home, yet he won’t come out and say it. Hawke says “It sounds like you want to settle down,” and Fenris will respond “I could see myself staying, for the right reasons,” and I just...look, he is deliberately giving himself an out when he says that. ‘The right reasons’ is a clever way of Fenris setting up an escape plan for when his paranoia inevitably settles in and it’s time to pack up and move on. ‘The right reasons,’ yeah, we both know Fenris, that when you decide it’s time to go you can then just be like ‘I haven’t found the right reason to stay’ and run. But the reason you haven’t found the right reason to stay, is because you are not MAKING a reason to stay! 

Moreover, his second one on one? Where if you flirted with him he’s like ‘You’re amazing, but I’m a slave...why would you want me?’ here, Hawke is beginning to represent that ‘right reason’...a reason he could stay, and that gives him some food for thought, as well as some potential fear...This is repeated when the flirting gets a bit more heated durng the second conversation. Where’s he drunk (I think?) and him and Hawke dance around ‘getting to know each other’ only for Fenris to suddenly back out.

A good quote, ‘if you feel as though you have no place in the world, you must make one,’ is something I think resonates with this elf. He doesn’t have a purpose in the world, he is on the run constantly with his past eating away at him. But he does want purpose, he’s just unable to grasp it. His story is about carving himself a new purpose, a new future.

Now, obviously...Fenris can’t really settle down. Not until he’s stopped being hunted which will only occur when Danarius is dead. I’m obviously not glossing over that and saying ‘Fenris is a bitch who won’t move on’ that’s not what I’m saying AT ALL. He has good reason to not stay in one place and he has good reason to paranoid. But, Danarius and the slavers? that’s not the inner conflict that I’m trying to analyse. Danarius and the slavers are an obstacle, they are the physical hurdles he has to jump over. So, yeah I know Fenris cannot do any of what I have said because of those hurdles, but he also can’t do any of that until he’s dealt with his inner conflict; which as I said before is him learning to move on and accepting the past.

The inner conflict NOT BEING ADDRESSED is exactly why after he kills Hadriana he feels EMPTY. In the moment that he is face to face with someone that caused him so much pain; she bullied him to no end and like any person Fenris loses it. All those years of abuse...he has the chance to exact his revenge and he does it. However, after being consumed with hatred for so long and at such an intensity...what is left? Now she’s dead...he feels nothing.

I want to point out that Fenris says ‘I couldn’t let her go, I wanted to...but I couldn’t’ at first I when I heard this line I was a bit confused. But thinking about it, Hadriana isn’t just a character in Dragon Age. In Fenris’s story she represents a chapter in his lifethat Fenris THOUGHT HE HAD CLOSED. He says ‘This hate...I thought I had gotten rid of it’ Hadriana represents Fenris’s rage...Hadriana while a complete fucking bitch, isn’t Danarius. Danarius is the one that haunts Fenris. While I have no doubt that she deserved to die, and I shudder to think what she might have done, she isn’t as bad as Danarius. Fenris...could have let her go, and if he had done then it would have represented some ounce of moving on...but he kills her, he gives into his rage and kills her. 

Fenris had convinced himself that he was over it to some degree, but he isn’t. So once her blood laments his hands, it is a revelation to him. A scary one...and that is why he feels ‘disquiet’. Or alternatively, you could see it as Fenris perhaps ALWAYS knowing he was not over his hate deep down, but Hadriana finally brought it to light. His hate has always been quelling inside of him, but it’s only really after Hadriana, does Fenris finally fucking realise it. So when it’s revealed to him, it becomes too much for him to handle hence why he stomps off leaving the party. Thus, beginning Act 2 of Fenris’s story...

Sorry for all of that, but now I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT HAWKE.

After he leaves the party, you will find Fenris at Hawke’s estate waiting for them. Now that hot, emotional fury has lifted from his senses he’s ready to be nice again and say sorry. 

After apologising; Hawke as concerned as always, asks him if he’s okay...and Fenris, without being drunk, will be completely honest with Hawke. He will confess the conflict he is feeling, he’ll describe what Hadriana made him feel and he will confess how her death left an emptiness inside of him...I don’t doubt that Fenris is a reserved person. He’s not one to voice his problems and past. While the entire cast of DAII know Fenris was a slave, I feel like only Hawke truly knows the details. However gory. The Fog Warriors story truly shows how much trust he has for Hawke, that isn’t a story that paints him as the good guy...yes, to some degree he was a victim but he did murder people who only wanted to help, who were willing to fight for his freedom. The Fog Warriors are parallel to Hawke, they were people he respected and looked up to just as he does with Hawke yet he killed them. Him telling that story...my god, imagine how hard that must be. Hawke is doing the same thing for him that the Fog Warriors did, but he trusts Hawke so much that he feels like they should know. 

Back to the romance scene, he is completely vulnerable in that moment. After his rant he has a moment of clarity and realises he’s distanced himself from the original goal of meeting up with Hawke. They’re so easy to talk to he forgot himself. So, he’s about to leave. Until Hawke reaches out for him.

THE KISS SCENE, wow...ok. The armour design defintely had a hand in it, we know his arms are showed off in that armour because he’s not keen on hiding them, he won’t hide from the slavers who know exactly what those markings mean. 

Hawke grabs HIS SKIN. As they try to stop him from leaving they touch his skin...

Back with Hadriana when Hawke can reach out for him, they grab his shoulder, the part of him that’s cladded in thick leather (or whatever the heck it’s made out of)...nothing happens. HERE THEY TOUCH HIS SKIN. All that SPIKY armour! And Hawke is close enough to Fenris that they can reach out and touch his bare arm. 

He glows, and while it can be speculated, the lyrium seems to briefly cloud his mind and instinctively he seems to think he’s being hurt, on reflex he slams Hawke against the wall. He appears angry, hostile...could be the lyrium defending him...but it’s probably more to do with physical abuse....

I love seeing that blue cloud fade from his eyes, as he slowly slips back to reality and processes what has just happened. His animation shows him stepping back, slowly because he must be thinking ‘I have just made this worse, I came here to apologise, and these damn markings just made me attack Hawke’ in this moment Hawke sees Fenris in a state. The Lyrium, the ‘magic that has spoiled him’ took over...he probably thinks they ought to be mortified. But instead? Hawke kisses him.

Hawke has seen him in the state he probably feels disgusted by. There’s no way this hasn’t happened before, where he’s lost control. And he probably feels akin to a mage succumbing to a demon. But Hawke...Hawke just loves him, and wants to make him feel loved. They saw that flicker of horror in his eye as he pinned them against the wall, and they just would want to blow it out. 

Of course Fenris is going to reciprocate. There’s no one he respects more, no one he trusts more (nor fancies more :) ) and after he did what he did they still kiss him. Finally, it is here that Hawke represents a future, and for that night he’s willing to have a taste of that future. To feel happy and loved, to forget about his past and focus on Hawke...

Then, the past comes to bite him in the arse.

He remembers his life before the the lyrium. Suddenly, without warning it is then stolen from him. He lost his life TWICE.

He lost it twice because of the Lyrium, the lyrium inflicted upon him by Danarius, the Magister who fucking...well, you know. The Magister who enslaved him and others and who has been sending out slavers to hunt him down, the very same slavers Hawke and Fenris fought that very day...the slavers that ambushed him and Hawke.

See where I’m going with this? Fenris recollecting his memories only to lose them is a double edged sword. One side, it’s clearly devastating and anyone would be disturbed if their whole life just vanished so suddenly. And if being with Hawke is just going to repeat that then you can’t blame him for wanting to end it. But also, Hawke? This human that represents a potential future? Being with them made him remember the past, the past he is still haunted by and clings to. How can he have a future with someone when being with them is tainted by the past?

I had a whole rant about this in another post so I won’t ramble too long since this post is already a thicc bitch but...Fenris cannot delve into a relationship with Hawke. He isn’t ready for the committment when he’s still being haunted by the past, both physically and mentally. Before he can have a future, he needs to work on himself in order to be ready for that future. He needs to kill Danarius. Now we circle back to him overcoming his obstacles and finally achieving his subconscious desires. 

I said that mental illness is reallt well portrayed in Fenhawke because Fenris and Hawke are seperated for YEARS. Yet, the beauty of it is that Hawke waits for Fenris. They stay by him, they support him and protect him and they remain at his side until the day they finally get to witness him pull out Danarius’s heart. It utterly evokes the beauty of good relationships such as patience, compromise and adoration of all flaws. Yes, they seperate and yes I know people got a bit mad. However, Fenris leaving Hawke strengthens their bond.

Fenris is the one who closes the chapter on Danarius, because as I have said if you are struggling with mental illness only you can help yourself and take the steps to recovery. There are the lucky few who have others surrounding them that will be of support and of course that helps...but it is down the one person to realise they are drowing, and it’s up to them if they grab the lifeguard.

With Danarius dead, once again that feeling of numbing emptiness prevails and instead of getting angry Fenris owns up to the fact that...he needs to move on. That if he’s ever going to be happy he needs to accept what happened to him. Whether or not you let verania live, it was important for Fenris to think he could have reclaimed the past. Because this time when he is once again proven wrong it finally clicks that the past has nothing for him anymore. I do wish he could have had a family, but...it is kinda fitting that Verania is a mage, that she isn’t interested in reuniting with Fenris. The ties have been cut, the past isn’t the answer.

He feels alone. Obviously, that’s not tue, because guess who’s been by his side all this time? And who is standing there right now, looking upon him with much love in their eyes reminding him ‘I’m here Fenris,’

That smile, *swoons* that smile. :’) As though Hawke has said something so bloody obvious. Making him smile because ‘yeah, he should have known that’ And that MY FRIENDS, Is probably when Fenris is already concieving the possibility of spending the rest of his life with Hawke...RIGHT THEN AND THERE.

Fenris has a long way to go to move on, but the important thing is is that he’s now finally willing and able. He doesn’t know where it will lead, but whatever or wherever it leads he’s going to walk it with Hawke. He talks about wishing he had stayed with Hawke when he finally confronts them with what happened between them all those years ago. He says that because now his head is clearer and he sees what he should have done. But Fenris sweetie, you had to go through what you did in order to be the man you are today, it’s ok that you made mistakes. You’re here now and so is Hawke.

A platonic bond with Fenris is important, but Fenris and Hawke probably never see each other again if that’s the case. If you romanced him, Fenris flees Kirkwall with Hawke. He ain’t leaving their side, because they are his future.

Fenris has a fucking amazing arc, bioware did really well with him and his romance was so well done and I love analysing his behaviour. Hawke really helps him get through his trauma and they are there to take his hands and lead him down the road to recovery. This was a romance DONE RIGHT

thank you for coming to my TedTalk.