I dunno what happened, but I couldn't reblog post about Circles, so I had to create separate post to add something from myself.
@darktemplar84 Don't forget that Felix was not good at magic and we all know what happens to mages in Southern Thedas, when they are not good enough to pass the Harrowing. They go through tranquility or fail the Harrowing and are killed (despite the fact that there may be a way to save them). While in the same time in Tevinter, mage who cannot pass the Harrowing CAN BECOME A SCHOLAR and go to the University of Orlais! It's exactly the case of Minaeve in DAI. If Circles weren't teared down in DAI, she would be made Tranquil, because she was not good enough at magic to pass the Harrowing, but thanks to the Rebellion, she could become kind of the scholar for the Inquisitor. (Vivienne says that Breach is dangerous because it increases chances of possesion, and I cannot argue with that, but as long as mage feels safe, like Minaeve, there is no possesion. It means that possesion can be avoided. I cannot really recall any information about abominations in the Inquisition, despite Cullen and Vivienne being so sure that there will be problem with that, because game doesn’t give this information in the first place). [I like to think that there were none, and that Cullen and Vivienne were utterly surprised.]
About noble families: Warden Amell were noble once. But when their magic manifested, which ended with them being taken to the Circle, they lost the right to hold the title (Connor is in the same boat here). But then if they become a Warden they suddenly can become someone important and in their case it's mostly because Warden's are independent and nobody can tell them what they can or what they can't do, even the Chantry, so when Wardens are granted the right to the Arlat of Amaranthine, nobody really cares that Warden is a mage in the end. Hawke from the other hand could be considered as a noble from Amell family, but once again, nobody really cares that they are a mage and I think that it's due to the fact that lore has too many plotholes and too many cases of individual mages being treated good or being treated bad, or that it’s the side effect of the situation, in which Bioware had to come up with good explanation why Hawke can hold an estate in Kirkwall and be a Champion, despite being an apostate mage, but failed miserably.
There is something wrong with the Circles in the lore. Once they are good, once they are bad. I was literally thinking that Ferelden Circle was ok, untill I went into basement where I found a lot of blood and demons... and I started to wonder... why they are there? I never played Awakening, but I know what Anders is saying about Circles and we should really reconsider the point of view, when we are talking about Circles. Some mages had more freedom and more chances to become important, than the others. I dunno how Vivienne's Circle looked like, but I try to imagine, and I sometimes wonder how many mages failed where she succeded. She holds power and lives better life than other mages, because she outsmarted the system. But still she is pro-Circle, because she sees it as institution, which could work better.
I also can imagine it as something good... but I cannot imagine it in the same way as Vivienne can. She doesn't see flaws in the Chantry, and I see too many of them. That's why for me Circles would work if they were separated from the Chantry and would be treated as private schools. People still would be "locked up" there, but they would at least have vacation and could go see their families or invide their families inside. And atmosphere would be different without Templars always watching. I cannot imagine school with such security. I would not really be able to focus on learning if somebody would watch my every move. It's unnerving. (And if someone thinks that being scared helps mages, then... no, it doesn't, it makes it even harder for them to pass Harrowing).
If we want to have Harrowing in the end (I don't, because there are better ways to test mages, than forcing them to deal with the demon), then it should not be something, which nobody knows about. Ferelden Circle mages were afraid of Harrowing, and they were constantly talking about mages dissapearing and never coming back, which reffers to them failing the Harrowing. Nobody knows what it is, and when Irving gives you advices in DAO, Gregoir basically stops him from "helping you". How fucked up is that? Tevinter version is probably more like our exams at the end of high school. We all don't like them, but we at least know how they look like and we are prepared to take them.
In the end Circles end as some kind of prisons like @notsosecretsolasobsession said. They are not Hogwart, there is too many things, which make them different than Hogwart, but also a lot of things which make them different from one another as well. Kirkwall was the worst one and Ferelden is treated as one of the best ones, at least by one of the in-game character, who wrote the codex entry about Circles. Even he noticed that something is wrong with the system and that it should be fixed. (And because codex entries are written by Bioware writers, we know that Bioware see the problem too).
@morealivethanvenser has a point here that Circles were not meant to be prisons, but after some time they were forced to become ones. I still can argue that they were like prisons before, because I cannot imagine that taking children from their families and shipping them somewhere, without even letting children to contact their parents later is a good thing. And when they are adults a lot of them may not want or not be able to reach their families. Anders would not want to see his father after what he did and I cannot imagine that his mother stayed with the guy after that. Revka Amell dissapears after Fausten Amell dies and father of Warden Amell dissapears too with the rest of the children, so there is no way to contact them. Some like Finn have the opportunity to contact their families, but we shouldn’t really treat it as a norm. Because with the Circles there is no norm.
The only norms, which I see are the flaws in the system itself. Huge ones or minor ones, depending on the Circle. But for me all system is flawed, because mages are treated like the only ones, which can be possesed... and it’s not really true. They are more likely to be (statistically), but everybody else can be too. Does it mean that we should lock them up and make them feel ashamed of who they are or treat them like the ticking bombs, who can become monsters at any second...? I think that it’s not really a good way to teach someone, that they have to learn to control their magic.
But Chantry made it possible, because they interpret Chant of Light as they see fit... and do I have to add that one of Chantry Sisters NPC in DAI actually says that mages were beaten in the Circles, and that mages were hiding their bruises, so nobody would know, how they were treated? She never stated in which Circle she was, though. I can only assume that it was not Kirkwall Circle.
@laurelsofhighever Wanna add something to this?
Links to the most interesting answers:
Connor’s Noble Title
Nobles and Commoners
Not Intended to be Prisons
Circle Reform is Needed
Harrowing
You can go outsite as long as you have important friends
There was also the post about Templars, where someone said that they are unfairly treated as bad people by the fandom, and this person has a point, but in the same time Cole has a point too, when he says that a lot of Templars abuse mages to feel better. The good Templars tho... why they always end so poorly? Losing people they love (Thrask). Being addicted to the point of no come back (Samson) and being tortured by desire demon (Cullen).
We cannot also forget that Templars even when they see that not all mages are bad and they are not bad themsemselves, still do nothing to stop the bad things from happening (and for the victim of abuse, the person who does nothing to stop abuse, is the same as the person, who abuses them), because they were brainwashed into thinking that mages should be locked down, because they are potential monsters.
Cullen never fully recovered from his previous attitude, he still is afraid of mages and not feel safe with them around. It’s understandable after what happened to him, but... it’s bad to exclude someone, who you love and treat them as exception of the rule (Cullen still can love a mage), while in the same time thinking about other mages as potential monsters. It’s the problem. I would even say that it’s a social issue in Thedas.
Mages are treated as if they were not people by the society in Southern Thedas, while in the same time elves are treated (by the same society) as knife-eared brutes, which are below everyone else (and quess who doesn’t caaaree about that, yes, the Chantry doesn’t care). Templars are made addict to the lyrium by the Chantry... mages are treated like an embodiment of the sin, which created the Blight and elves... elves are erased from the history of the Chantry so Chantry could treat them as lower class citizens.
