lingering-nomad:

asexualdisneyprince:

keprambles:

vantasticmess:

people get mad about how anders will give you friendship if you return fenris to danarius like ‘oh that’s so ooc’ but i was talking with knightarcana about this the other day and honestly i don’t think anders even sees a person when he sees fenris: he just sees a symbol of everything he’s fighting against, all the anti-mage prejudice and negative stereotypes. and fenris is the same? i don’t think fenris see anders, he just sees everything that was done to him as a slave and the worst things that mages can become in a person package.

in short lbr: if you had the option to see anders made tranquil, fenris would give you friendship points just like anders does if you hand fenris to danarius bc they hate everything the other stands for just that much.

If it SEEMS out of character, that’s part of the point I think.

Part of the thing with Anders is as Dragon Age 2 progresses his views become more and more extreme and he begins to have an US vs. THEM, black and white attitude…About EVERYTHING and If you refuse to help him or even just verbally disagree with him he by Act 3 becomes explosively angry. And Fenris NEVER agrees with Anders because Fenris has lived a life under the oppression of mages while Anders has lived with the oppression put upon him by non-mages.

So the idea that a mage can take away and overpower Fenris, and strip him of all freedoms, that appeals to Anders at a certain point because he’s so consumed by his obsession with the mage and Templar struggle. And right, I don’t think he DOES see Fenris as a person, it gets to be that Fenris is just a symbol of the kind of person and attitude that Anders feels compelled to obliterate.

And if you DO allow Fenris to be returned to a life of slavery it makes Anders REALLY happy. Like completely inappropriately happy…And it’s a tell of how far gone he is…And it’s dark and disturbing.

That said, I don’t doubt that if there were an option to make Anders Tranquill or to turn Anders into the Templars, Fenris would approve of it. But Fenris probably wouldn’t be as ecstatic or happy. He believes, correctly, that Anders is dangerous. And it isn’t because he’s a mage, it’s because Anders IS unstable, dangerous and progressively an extremist.

And even if Fenris doesn’t like mages as a rule, he does admit that there are mages who are well intended, and strong enough to resist possession and blood magic, (most notably Bethany or a Mage Hawke)

But Anders is possessed when we meet him in Dragon Age 2. And by Act 2 he’s clearly out of control…By Act 3 he’s a disaster…

So yeah, it’s unlike Anders to be THAT happy in terms of who he USED to be but not at all when it comes to who he is and what he is by the time we have the option to sell Fenris back into a life of slavery…

And to be honest, it’s all really sad.

pxtroclxs

If Hawke romanced someone other than Fenris and Fenris is present when Keran tells Hawke about the kidnapping plot in Best Served Cold, Fenris says that he’d kill anyone who tries to use ‘one of us against you.’ His concern is for Hawke and whoever was taken, including Anders. If Anders is present in the same conversation, he calls the plan ‘bold.’ His focus, once again, is on ‘The Cause,’ rather than individuals – even if they happen to be his closest friends.

Fact is, some characters are more open to being influenced by the protag than others. Iron Bull and Solas are corresponding examples in DA:I. Solas does what he does irrespective of what the Inquisitor decides to do. Aside from some dialogue variance, the Inquisitor has very little impact on his arc. By the same token, Anders can be rivaled or in friendship, supported or abandoned without deviating from his course.

IB on the other hand becomes a completely different person depending on how the Inquisitor chooses to handle their interactions, and this is true for Fenris as well. By the end of DA2, Fenris can be dead, re-enslaved, on the run, travelling west, sleeping with Isabela, or planning a future with Hawke – all as a direct result of how Hawke chooses to engage with him. He’s arguably the most malleable character in DA2, and possibly the series. Fenris can be mean, yes, but he’s mostly talk. The only time he’ll go along with senseless violence against mages, is during the final battle if Hawke hasn’t won his trust, but that’s literally it.

Just like Anders, Act 3 Fenris has come a long way. Unlike Anders, however, Fenris’ arc is one of recovery, while Anders is trapped in a kamikaze spiral (which breaks my heart). We see this in act 2 already when Fenris attempts to sympathise with Andy after Dissent. We never see a comparable interaction from Anders’ side. Wrt mages in general, Fenris disapproves if Ella is killed and will protest Ketojan’s execution. Even rivaled, he’s fairly decent to mage!Hawke/Bethany and shows respect for Malcolm. He even has dialogue where he expresses remorse for killing Hadriana. Andy, on the other hand, will advocate for killing Thrask solely on the basis of being a templar.

As it happens, the game does offer an opportunity to turn Anders in. Hawke has to be pro-templar and refuse when Anders asks for help with the potion, though if Hawke takes Fenris along when he goes to Cullen and tells him to have Anders arrested, there’s no approval to be had from Fen.