pikestaff:

I love mage!Handers and non-mage!Handers for different reasons.

I love mage!Handers because here you have these two individuals who have always been outcasts, the Other, and they find solace in each other, in another person who understands, who doesn’t have to be told all the details and nuances of what it’s like to be different because they know, and the world may not understand them but at least they have each other.  And Anders grew up in the Circle learning magic is evil, magic is bad, mages are bad – oh he denies it, but it’s lodged deep in his subconscious – but then here’s Hawke, Hawke who is a mage and is wonderful and amazing and strong, and if Hawke is a mage who is also a fundamentally good person then perhaps Anders, too, can learn to accept himself as a mage who is a fundamentally good person.

I love non-mage!Handers because someone actually accepts Anders for who he is, as a person – they look past the mage part, they look past the apostate bit, they see him as the fierce and beautiful and fiery soul that he is.  They see his magic as beautiful, as a gift – not something to be feared.  A non-mage Hawke adds such gravitas to the story and the romance, he’s so worried that they’ll leave him, that they’ll realize they’re giving up a “normal life” for him.  He asks them “You’d tell the world, the Knight-Commander, that you love an apostate and you will stand beside him?”  And they do, because they love him and Anders realizes he’s not just fighting for mages but for ideals that everyone holds, and he knows that with Hawke at his back with their sword or their daggers or their bow that they can take on the world.

I just

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ HANDERS, guys, I love HANDERS