Okay Iām just going to say it: I always found the take that āFenris and Andersā relationship is wasted potentialā kind of irritating. At least in the way most people mean when they say it: Anders and Fenris never found common ground, and that is a waste of potential
I do agree that there are some writing let-downs in their relationship, I just don't agree that the fact that they never reach a common ground is part of it.
It is true that Fenris and Anders have more in common than differences, their trauma is ultimately based in the same thing: being held and tormented against their will by an oppressive system. If you pay attention, the narrative, the characters, and Fenris and Anders themselves are aware of this. Here's a little snippet of it shown in this Legacy dialogue
The game knows they're alike. It's not that they can't see there's common ground between them. They can. The problem is: Fenris is healing, and Anders is not
I'm going to show you more banter screenshots now
Specifically of Fenris and Anders' banter with Varric, in acts 2 and 3
Just bear with me, we'll start with Fenris
Fenris and Varric in act 2
Fenris and Varric in act 3
Anders and Varric in act 2
Anders and Varric in act 3
There are more banters that illustrate this point but I think these four are the strongest and also I would like to go to sleep at some point tonight.
Fenris is healing from his past, if you look at his banters as a whole, you can see across all characters he gets more open, humorous, and talkative throughout all acts. Anders does the exact opposite. Anders gets more closed off, cold, and in act 3 you'll notice he rarely speaks before being spoken to unless he's following up on a previous conversation.
It makes sense, to me at least, why they never become friends. It isn't because Anders is a mage, Bethany is a mage, anti-circle, and Fenris loves her. Don't believe me? Look on the wiki or search "Bethany" on my blog and you'll find some of their interactions. They're adorable.
It's because Anders is getting worse and Fenris is getting better. That's why all their conversations are just an exhausting loop and why they never seem to connect. To me, that is the story being told here. It was never about them finding a common ground, it was about paralleling two people and one who heals from their past, and one who does not. Making them on opposite sides of the mage/templar debate is meant to emphasize this.
I do want to state that I have mixed feelings about this. While I think it's a neat idea, it does also feed the "You were hurt by a system but now your hate for it consumes you" trope which I am. Not a fan of. You can also talk about how the world itself plays into this in that Fenris can escape from Tevinter but Anders can't escape from being a mage. That's all a retrospective for another day, I'm just talking about the intent behind the relationship here.
Basically what Iām trying to say is: A story may not go in the direction you want it to but that does not make the story bad, it just makes it the story you didnāt want. That is fine, but I take some issue when people treat it as an actual fault of the story rather than a matter of taste.
Like I said, there are plenty of actual writing issues in Dragon Age 2, and I do think that there are some wasted opportunities in Fenris and Anders' relationship. My biggest problem is that it doesn't go far enough. We see Anders spiral until he hits full rock bottom and destroys the Chantry. We see Fenris... go play some cards with his buddies. I think it would've been more effective if Fenris got a little farther in his healing, namely his relationship with magic. I've said that I don't think Fenris would ever fully trust magic and I don't, but it would've been neat to at least see more progress made than is actually made in the game. This I think is the consequence of Dragon Age 2 being a first draft like David Gaider said, I think if they had more time, they could've pushed this further and made it more interesting, but I do genuinely like what's there like I genuinely like the entirity of Dragon Age 2.
Anyway, that's why in my opinion, Anders and Fenris never finding a common ground isn't a problem from a narrative perspective.
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