Bioware: wow look at this abused soul..! His lover was taken from him, he was taken from his family as a child, constantly told how he was a sinner for being born the way he was, imprisoned most of his life, and put into solitary confinement! He heals poor villagers for free and tries his best to stand up for the underprivileged and fellow abused!
Anders: So the templars are committing blatant genocide and the chantry is allowing it happen and just sitting idly by.
Bioware: …
Anders: *Retaliates against his oppressors*
Bioware: dISGUSTING. He’s a CRAZY terrorist!! He ruined everything! You should hate him!! This is why you can’t trust mages!!
Ander was not a terrorist. Just because he blew something up does not make him one. Terrorism is not a universally agreed upon word, true, because it is a fraught term, but the word itself kind of carries the most important part of the act; to cause terror, specifically to do so with some political goal in mind. As a consequence, intent is vital in determining acts of terror, and fortunately we have plenty of in-game evidence for why Anders did what he did – in fact he tells us directly, and we have no reason to disbelieve him, because ALL the supporting evidence proves him to be honest.
The single most important line is when Anders says, right after the explosion, “I have removed the chance of compromise because there can BE no compromise.” Now, we can differ on whether he is correct in that assessment, but his objective was very clear. He wanted to attack a specific, highly symbolic target; to admit it was him and him alone (He doesn’t even let a romanced Hawke know what he’s up to.); and when the Templars used it as a pretext to invoke the Right of Annulment and kill all the mages in Kirkwall’s Circle, to thereby demonstrate that they are motivated not by the facts of the matter but by a prejudice and a brutal system of oppressing mages.
Anders knew that the Right had already been called for by Meredith, and had been denied by the Divine, which in fact causes him to seriously question whether a peaceful solution COULD be found. And let’s not forget that, after coming face-to-face with his lover, Karl, and finding that the Chantry had violated their own laws to make him Harrowed, after seeing all the other injustices of the Kirkwall Circle, he still tried for the better part of a decade to solve the situation by peaceful means, through agitation, through spreading his manifesto, through the Mage Underground. By the time he actually takes action it is an immediate need, and he is proven totally correct in every part of his belief and expectation. He is standing right there and says he did it, offering no resistance, and Meredith storms off to kill every Circle mage. The alternative was to wait until the Right was approved, letting Meredith brutalize and illegally make Mages Tranquil all the while, and then watch every Mage in the Circle be butchered. By doing what he did and exposing Meredith, he gave them at least a chance to fight back or escape.
NO part of this equation involves terror. The plan did not hinge on, did not require, did not call for anyone to be change their actions because they were cowed. He had a calculated plan and no aspect of it involved terror. Anders was NOT a terrorist, not by any proper use of the word. I am not arguing here that Anders was right or wrong, that is a related but distinct matter. I am arguing for a proper application of the terms used to describe him and what he did, because we can’t even discuss whether he was right or wrong if we aren’t using the right terminology in the first place, and if we’re just going to use loaded terms like “terrorist” because we disagree with what he did, the discussion is over before it can begin.
I’ve said all this before – this has all been said before – but I’d like to emphasize once again the futility and inappropriateness of using modern geopolitical terms to describe events taking place in a middle-ages feudal fantasy environment. Terrorism is a recent concept, and even today not everyone even agrees on what it means, let alone when to apply it. It means far more than ‘blowing stuff up.’
But if we’re going to take modern globalist vocabulary out of context, can we talk about how the Chantry is a tyrannical theocratic empire? Can we talk about their prolonged ethnic cleansing campaign against the demographic minorities? Can we talk about their concentration camps and child soldier programs? Can we talk about this?
Because Anders deserves hugs. And neck kisses.
I was inspired after re-reading this little ficlet by @fauxfires and I just love the description of Hawke’s hands on Anders:
“hawke’s hands settle on anders in turn – a light touch, a hand on his hip and another around his back, palm splayed out in the centre of his feathered mantle, fingers spread and claws digging in just enough to make the fabric bunch around them.“
(Tbh I enjoy Reikah’s writing in general. Even your small handers related commentaries/tags can easily make my day.)
Abandoned thing I’ll never have time to finish, from a time long ago when I was in the mood to draw all the silly faces and Megamind was on loop at work and I couldn’t stop laughing at this scene. X3
(click-through because there is no way Tumblr is going to suffer legibility in comics.)
Today is the last day of Celebrating Handers week and it’s billed as a “free day,” to do whatever. I suppose the intention was to do some more art or fic or something else creative, but I’m kind of all written out at the moment, so instead I’m going to do my second favorite fandom activity: metaposting!
Installment ?? of
¯_(ツ)_/¯
of “why I ship Handers.” This one’s kind of metanarrative heavy, and of course only reflects my own personal opinions and interpretations.
Some time ago, for no particular reason I was reading up on the recommended strategies for a lot of the harder boss fights in DA2. It struck me as kind of funny that so many of them contained the instruction set, “First, bring Anders. Second, let everybody die except Anders…” It was enough to make me comment wryly that it wasn’t clear, sometimes, who exactly was supposed to be the main character here.
It still isn’t. In many ways, Anders displays most of the traits one would expect to find in a protagonist, and indeed seems to be the hero figure in his own story. I’m not the first one to notice this; Fauxfires wrote an excellent meta post where she commented that Anders was “a hero of another story” and we don’t get to find out all the events and circumstances that go into the choice he made. I’d contend that Anders is a strong candidate for the hero of this story. Though that depends, of course, on what story you think Dragon Age II actually is.
Can someone who actually likes Anders from DA2 explain to me why? This is an honest question, I’m genuinely baffled why so much of fandom is obsessed with him. If you’re willing, message me or comment with your thoughts?
This got a bit long, sorry!
(cut for length. Also, screenshots. Also, a rambling and entirely subjective essayabout Anders, the hero of another game narrative, the Chantry boom and flaws.)
Queer Fortress 