I Want To Draw Attention To This Conversation Anders And Isabela Have In Act 3 Of DA2 ...

I want to draw attention to this conversation Anders and Isabela have in Act 3 of DA2 ...

Anders: "There is justice in the world." Isabela: "Is there? You want to free the mages. Let's say you do, but to get there, you kill a bunch of innocent people." Isabela: "What about them? Don't they deserve justice?" Anders: "Yes." Isabela: "And then what? Where does it end?" Isabela: "It's like a bar brawl. People are continuously pulled into the fray, and nobody remembers why it started." Isabela: "Justice is an idea. It makes sense in a world of ideas, but not our world."

(emphasis mine)

I think this bit of dialogue is SO telling of Anders' thinking and motivations in Act 3.

He is fully aware that his action of destroying the Kirkwall Chantry is deserving of retribution. He submits himself to it after the act is done. Anders and Justice fully agree that the people who died in the Chantry explosion are deserving of justice, too.

Which is why they readily submit themselves to Hawke's judgement. They will not fight back. Anders and Justice both agree that a price must be paid, and were ready to pay for the price of their actions with their lives.

And this is exactly the reason why they did not involve Hawke in the full extent of their plans.

Because it would have implicated Hawke too.

Let me say that again.

If Hawke knew the full extent of Anders' plan, the full truth, Hawke would be implicated in the act and be deserving of retribution, too.

Anders wanted Hawke to have a way out, a "get out of jail free" card — if Hawke was ignorant of Anders and Justice's plans, Hawke can claim innocence and be exempt from retribution. It's all on Anders' head now; only Anders deserves to be punished. Hawke is protected and safe.

(And for those of you who are saying, "Anders should have involved Hawke, because Hawke would have found another solution to the problem" — I firmly believe that Anders had no other choice and had exhausted all other options. But that's an argument for another day.)

Players who played a fully mage-sympathetic Hawke, who did nothing but support Anders throughout the game, and feel "betrayed" because Anders would not let Hawke in on the whole plan and support him fully — this is why. Anders acted alone because he knows Hawke deserves to escape the ordeal unscathed.

And sure, Hawke can still feel "betrayed", in the sense that a mage-sympathetic Hawke would have willingly faced the same retribution and willingly paid the same price for being complicit in the plan. They would still want to chastise Anders for excluding them from it — which is why you have this dialogue option:

Hawke: "I might have understood, if you'd only told me." Anders: "I wanted to tell you. But what if you stopped me? Or worse, what if you wanted to help? I couldn't let you do that."

And Anders explains this, exactly. He knows Hawke is too important to Kirkwall to be implicated (and if romanced, he loves Hawke too much to see them implicated). This is why Anders decided to act alone. This way, Hawke could never be pulled into that "bar brawl", to borrow Isabela's metaphor.

I guess some players are upset because they're like, how dare you take that choice away from me? I'm the player, I'm supposed to have full agency over the narrative. But tbh, I personally think it can be a more fulfilling and memorable narrative if the NPCs also have a degree of autonomy, and are capable of acting outside of the player character's control.

I suppose a portion of players miss this little insight because Isabela didn't stay after Act 2 to trigger this Act 3 banter with Anders, or they rarely had Anders and Isabela in the same party line-up in Act 3.

I don’t think hannibal lecter is a bad person, perhaps you just don’t understand him but I do.

Your hand exist to forfeit all possession to Solas and rub his lovely bald head *squeak squeaky noise*

Things Anders tried before the aptly named climax quest The Last Straw:

Demonstrating the good work that magic can do running a free clinic in Darktown, resulting in droves of Kirkwall citizens ready to defend him and question why mages are treated like they are. His very introduction quest has Hawke confronted by a mob of Ferelden refugees ready to fight to protect Anders after overhearing Hawke ask about him. This is still the case three years later according to his Act 2 codex entry.

Peaceful protest methods like spreading leaflets about why people shouldn’t fear mages, and yet this is treated like a joke or “mad ravings.”

Assisting other mages escape the Circle–this does not just include helping mages find shelter, but raids into the Gallows and leading people out, according to the Mage Underground codex entry. In the Dissent quest he says he has personally led five mages out prior to this if you click on him when in the tunnels. However by Act 3 the Mage Underground has been basically destroyed by the Templar Death Squads. (See: The quest A Noble Agenda.)

Attempts to reason with Grand Cleric Elthina, and later asks Hawke to do the same one last time. Surprise, shit all happens.

It’s not like it was his first plan. Or even his second, or third. But things kept going down and down to a breaking point.

It was the last straw.

by epicbigchungus

solas is the dread wolf. he left lavellan, took her arm, and was a dumb bitch baby. dorian has an idea to help her get over that elvhen loser.

Words: 2658, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Female Lavellan (Dragon Age), The Iron Bull (Dragon Age), Dorian Pavus, Sera (Dragon Age), Solas (Dragon Age)

Relationships: Female Inquisitor/The Iron Bull (Dragon Age), The Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus, Female Inquisitor/Solas (Dragon Age), Female Lavellan/Solas (Dragon Age), The Iron Bull/Female Lavellan (Dragon Age)

Additional Tags: Cuckolding, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Rough Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Dirty Talk, Polyamory

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/43804380

I ship them so bad 😭😭😭