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"You tend to get up to interesting things. you meet interesting people and then you kill them."
Fanblog that celebrates the making of an amazing Dark Fantasy RPG series, with a surprising lack of Dragons but is getting on that. A blog for the Dragon Age series and the fandom that loyally follows it.
The Mod's specialty is lore posting and sometimes fanfic writing.
if anders was allowed to keep ser pounce-a-lot or get a cat he would have never blown up the chantry. his cat needs him now, he CAN’T go gallivanting through kirkwall. he CAN’T JUST DIE anymore hawke he has achild.
viv and egg have more restraint. anders and fenris have nothing left to lose- it’s like that guy you know who would totally throw down for a ten piece mcnugget
nothing anders and fenris has said to each other will be more insulting than solas telling viv that she front-loads her barriers
the real difference here is anders and fenris would be the pair sucker punching each other and rolling around in the dirt trying to choke each other out like children. Solas and Vivienne are, you find one of them missing for three days straight until they turn up frozen in a ditch or something, with no memory other than the fact they had seen the other one Once the day whatever happened to them happened and it was hours before their memory was blanked.
Anders and Fenris pisses on each other’s lawns, Solas and Vivienne commits multiple felonies to get back at the other
viv and egg have more restraint. anders and fenris have nothing left to lose- it’s like that guy you know who would totally throw down for a ten piece mcnugget
nothing anders and fenris has said to each other will be more insulting than solas telling viv that she front-loads her barriers
the real difference here is anders and fenris would be the pair sucker punching each other and rolling around in the dirt trying to choke each other out like children. Solas and Vivienne are, you find one of them missing for three days straight until they turn up frozen in a ditch or something, with no memory other than the fact they had seen the other one Once the day whatever happened to them happened and it was hours before their memory was blanked.
@goblinish said: Are we SURE normal wardens can’t have children at all? Because I only just romanced Alistair in a playthrough, and he talks about two wardens have a kid being extremely unlikely - I remember it specifically because I had always thought it was impossible, but the way he was talking, it sounded merely improbable.
I remember that! Despite what Alistair said, I think I read somewhere that it’s very difficult for a couple with one Warden to have children, but impossible for two. I just… Can’t remember where (reddit, probably).
Speaking of which, Anders says something about having kids at the end of DA2, if you romance him…. Which makes me wonder whether or not he’s even aware that GWs can’t have kids.
Because he’s a Grey Warden, you mean? (Or is there another reason he can’t that I’ve missed? In which case, oops and blood magic.)
If it’s the first, I’m using Justice as an excuse:
(From here) “David Gaider wrote: A Grey Warden can have a child… just not with another Grey Warden. So in the case of Alistair being married to a female PC the only possible result is no heir (unless Alistair has a child with someone other than his wife, I suppose). Grey Wardens have a limited chance of conception with a non-Grey Warden, but it does happen… and the child is not tainted in any fashion. “
I’m not saying his word or law, or that they couldn’t have changed things up since then (they brought Leliana back to life quick enough), but this is a thing.
(If Carver is a Grey Warden) Isabela: You’ve certainly…filled out, Carver. Shame, really, I hear joining the Wardens separates the men from their “boys.” Carver: We rarely have children, true. But don’t worry, that just means I try ever so much harder.
thelasttactician quipped: Out of curiosity, how would you write Anders differently (in DA2), if the opportunity was presented? Like - if you had the parameters of Anders still needing to be the catalyst of the Mage-Templar war, and that he and Justice still needed to be merged, and he still needed to be a romance - what would you change from the way his writer wrote him?
Well, I would do quite a few things different.
For starters, I’d change the dynamic between Justice and Anders. Hepler used Justice to personify Anders mental disorder, rather than letting it stand on its own and then punished Anders for it at every turn. I would keep Anders’s bipolar disorder, but let it stand on its own. And yeah it might be worse with Justice or sometimes triggered by him, but that is because instead of a single bipolar person, you would now have two anxious, impulsive entities who experience manic and depressive moods. Also, not have Hawke punish or deride Anders for experiencing those things, his paranoia, and just all around discrediting his past experiences with Templar abuse.
Then there is how Hepler approached his romance, there were some messed up things that she had said when writing Garrett vs Marian. I would want to make sure Marian got the dialogues of how Anders came to Kirkwall to find Karl, because Karl was more to him once. I would particularly love to use his One Line “I always believed people fall in love with the whole person, not just a body.”
Another problem was his Rivalry path being the “good choice”, shutting him down and telling him repeatedly that his experiences and paranoia are invalid and need to stop is never a “good choice”. I get it is supposed to be the opposite of Fenris’, but it’s different. Also I think Anders should have read his manifesto for both Friend and Rivalry paths, it is an important part of his fight and would do wonders to show how Anders had a plan that no one cared about or listened to. Also kind of bullshit the “good choice” of deriding Anders and “putting him in his place”, to the point he can have a banter where he says he is going to commit suicide after helping the Templars, is the only path in which you get a kiss from Anders in romance. So Away with that. If I were to leave the ending as is, I would at least have Hawke and Anders have a discussion (especially in romance) where they talk about how this is a loss of trust and Anders has to earn that back. In which a kiss is at Hawke’s/Player’s control and optional as such.
Now for him being a catalyst? First, there should have been no blowing up of the Chantry. If he is blowing up anything, I feel it should have been Meredith’s office (since you can take him into the heart of it) and for it to have failed. The story could have moved forward from there easily. I personally prefer an assassination of Elthina. It could have been just as effective, if we are going with dismantling the compromise. I mean a Qunari could just walk in and shoot a Mother dead, Elthina is just as easy a target.
Assuming one of the above happened, removing Elthina only or trying to remove Meredith and failing. I would have had Anders to build an army of his own to face the Templars when they’ve gone too far. Anders has helped a lot of people, and if Hawke is a friend then that triples the amount of people available. That once an attack had been called then the armies would come together to see who gets Kirkwall in the end. Which I think would be interesting and great to see a possibility where Pro-Mage Hawke (especially better explain how a Mage Hawke) can end up Viscount of a Mage-Free City. The amount of controversy that would cause in the Chantry and how that could have tied into an Exalted March DLC or even Inquisition’s Mage/Templar issue on a whole new level. Just there is a lot I would have rewrote when it came to the ending.
What more, there could have been a much better job of making the Templar/Mage issue more grey. Humanize more of them individual, like Thrask. Less rapists and abusers, more Templars who are here because they need jobs, they became Templars to protect the mages in their own family, orphans of Darktown and Lowtown who have only ever known the Order and despite disagreeing feel they owe it everything, Samsons who were punished or thrown out for feeling mercy to mages, Templars who believe Meredith wrong and not just at the end but all the way through, and who truly want to protect mages and worry about their wellbeings. They did it some with Cullen, especially in Inquisition; but by then it was too late. Show the Order and System is the problem, not the Templars themselves.
Then it becomes a matter of do you kill every Templar you come across or do you tear down the Order and help rehabilitate the Templars. Are they like-minded soldiers “just doing their job” or soldiers forced to uncomfortable limits to survive.
“Hey, don’t worry about the statue’s inaccuracy, though. As you remember I’ve got an inaccurate statue too—probably broken by now, but I’ve got one. Now we match.”
I don’t always draw lazily done mini comics, but when I do, my brother is responsible for spawning the idea. The whole: “What if Anders eventually got a statue in his honor.” idea. :V
well of course there’s a statue of anders. of course. and of course it stands against the cold better than flesh ever did. and of course it gets his nose all wrong—although, at certain angles, maybe it doesn’t do such a terrible job of it after all.
and birds perch on his shoulders, ruffling their feathers. looking like pauldrons. making, in brief moments, the stone come alive. almost as if a tired little man is sighing, yawning, shrugging.
and strangers leave garlands, little candles burning. and they toss flowers or drop chipped, round coppers or rest a moment in the shade he casts, touching him for only a second.
then moving on.
in spring, isabela can see it from the shore, steering close enough—but not so close that the hull of a stolen ship is dashed in the shallows. she lifts her hands, not in a salute, but to wiggle her fingers. electricity tricks and april showers. lightning, now and then, just before dawn.
in summer, the stone bakes, but it doesn’t change—not too much; not like varric’s narrative, which still can’t settle on a point of view. ‘writing,’ varric sighs, shaking his head. ‘all it really is, is making a whole bunch of difficult decisions.’ he leaves blank vellum, so it’s not like he’s really gone.
in the fall, leaves scatter at anders’s feet. the garlands lose their petals. the candles burn out.
and hawke comes, always in the winter.
because there’s a hole in anders’s coat. because the sculptor got that so very right. and because being alone is always so bloody cold.
on a slightly happier alternative on mr. wiggums and anders, it could be that mr. wiggums was just never possessed. thus we have no possessed cat filed in the records.
that the cat bonded so deeply with anders and gave his life willingly for anders. he died defending anders from those three templars, not motivated by possession but just the cat’s genuine care for anders.
…and also that the templars probably told anders that they killed a (not possessed) cat for being possessed, just to deny anders the idea the cat was defending him out of genuine affection.
The rooms in the basement of Kinloch Hold (the Fereldan Circle Tower) next to the repository? The dark cold stone ones with all the iron bars, cages, blood stains, old bones and shackles? I think those are the rooms used for solitary confinement. If I’m right, then Anders spent a year down there. Alone.
Honestly, except for the Repository (but no mage is going to be imprisoned in a room with dangerous artifacts), there is no where in the basement (because I doubt solitary confinement is anywhere else in the tower) is there a place that I can think of to stop this from hurting.
In fact, that cell towards the end of the quest (and near the beginning of the basement) seems the most likely places and it’s just cold, dark, the icy fog that slips under the door of the phylactery chamber and makes it hard to breath. It’s all incredibly messed up.
He was not alone. He has a cat. Who possessed by a rage demon… he attracted it?
…the cat isn’t even confirmed to exist and I don’t if that is worse or better.
The rooms in the basement of Kinloch Hold (the Fereldan Circle Tower) next to the repository? The dark cold stone ones with all the iron bars, cages, blood stains, old bones and shackles? I think those are the rooms used for solitary confinement. If I’m right, then Anders spent a year down there. Alone.
Honestly, except for the Repository (but no mage is going to be imprisoned in a room with dangerous artifacts), there is no where in the basement (because I doubt solitary confinement is anywhere else in the tower) is there a place that I can think of to stop this from hurting.
In fact, that cell towards the end of the quest (and near the beginning of the basement) seems the most likely places and it’s just cold, dark, the icy fog that slips under the door of the phylactery chamber and makes it hard to breath. It’s all incredibly messed up.
Reminder that Anders isn’t Anders’ real name, no one knows his real name. he was called Anders, because he refused to tell anyone his name (or really talk to anyone at all) when he first arrived at the Circle; and also somehow, someway has an Anderfels look to him, being half Anders(ethnicity) by paternal lineage.
Anders is Anders’ real name because he has chosen to go by it. A “birthname” doesn’t equate to a true name. If he had wanted to use a previous name, or even a completely different new one he could have at any point in the DA series. Instead he chose to adopt what they nicknamed him and keep it as his name. Anders will always be Anders’ real name as long as he decides to keep that as his name.
Seriously. He was twelve when he was taken to the Circle. He’s been Anders for all of his adolescence and adult life, which is more than twice as long as he ever went by his birth name for. It’s the name everyone who’s ever known him as a mage (which is pretty damn central to his identity) knows him by. It’s the name that the love of his life calls him by. It’s his name.
Okay, now that I have the commentary I need. Let’s talk about this. I’m glad Anders is comfortable enough to use the name he was given in the Circle as his actual name. But I think it is also worth noting, Isabela, Fenris, AND Anders are all using names given to them by their abusers.
Isabela’s birthname is Naishe, Fenris was Leto, and Anders…well we don’t know.
But what we do know is Luis named her Isabela, his lovely wife who he gave an Antivan name as an Antivan himself (the reasoning hopefully is obvious).
We know Fenris, the little wolf, was given by Danarius
and Anders, by other Circle Mages and Templars who needed to call him Something.
And yes, I am so glad they embrace their names and never let who bestowed them ruin their future as those people. Even Bela says she may even change her name again in the future.
My post was badly worded and I apologize, but also I wanted to use it to talk about how those names come from a dark place and were instead used to strengthen them instead of weighing on them like their actual pasts have. I just didn’t know how to at the moment.
(Also not something I wanted to bring up, but also how Anders is somehow “Anders-looking” enough for the Circle to profile him as such)
Reminder that Anders isn’t Anders’ real name, no one knows his real name. he was called Anders, because he refused to tell anyone his name (or really talk to anyone at all) when he first arrived at the Circle; and also somehow, someway has an Anderfels look to him, being half Anders(ethnicity) by paternal lineage.
