How Early Do You Think Anders Sensed That Hawkes Sibling Had The Blight? When It Happened? Just After?

How early do you think Anders sensed that Hawkes sibling had the blight? When it happened? Just after? Did Anders open his mouth to raise the alarm? Did Carver glare at him until he shut it again? Did Bethany shake her head: not yet, not now, it's too late to fix it anyway, let's pretend a while longer. Do you think Anders was desperately trying to plan while Hawkes sibling bantered back and forth with Hawke for possibly the last time? Do you think Anders did quiet soft healing spells when they made camp to ease the pain off for as long as possible? How long was it Anders and Carver keeping that secret, the two who had never gotten along but who were now bound in this? How long did Anders spend wondering if he could make Bethany "Sunshine" Hawke who was kind about Justice and understood his cause a Grey Warden? How long?

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 thought you were a lesbian??

I AM TALKING ABOUT THE FAST FOOD CHAIN

so, i just finished a solavellan playthrough haha ha…

i am not ok 

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