Says Hawke who knows next to nothing about Tevinter besides what Fenris told them. Danarius was using her just as she was using him to get a better standing. I think they are pretty equal in that regard. She didn't do it to save herself, she did it to come into position of power. And don't tell me that we know nothing of her situation, her own words speak for itself - "I would have been a magister. It was my only chance."
Would you also call Hawke a victim if they turned Bethany over to the templars to get rid of the neccessity to move from place to place? A victim of society, why not? It's so easy to blame it on society, but in the end you are always alone with your actions.
She says becoming a magister was her only chance - but her only chance at what? Was it that she only wanted power or was there something she was fleeing that she thought become a magister would save her from. The point is, we don't know.
And it comes right down to it we know barely more about Tevinter than what Hawke does. If Hawke doesn't have the full viewpoint, neither do we.
We can certainly judge Hawke for turning over Bethany, but we know Hawke's story. We don't know Varania's. And BioWare rarely writes one dimensional characters.
I don't usually let him kill her because he might regret it after. Perhaps she could tell him what his life was like before the ritual, if they ever came to speaking terms (likely not).
But sometimes I do let him kill her. He made a point about how she was ready to see him killed. I sympathize with his reasoning because he barely knew her so what was she to him. On her part however she knew him her whole life, grew up with him, experienced what their life was like and she still wanted to see him burn. Its heartless to the core. And i hate her guts.
Fenris says she was ready to have killed, but I think that's an overstatement on his part. She was only handing him over to Danarius, who isn't interested in killing him.
Regardless of whether or not Varania deserves to die, I suspect Fenris would regret killing her afterwards. If you let him kill Hadriana and then remind him that he had given his word to let her go, he admits that he wanted to let her go but couldn't.
I don't think Varania's situation is all that analogous to Hawke's, though. For one thing, there were at least two mages in Hawke's family (three for a mage!Hawke) and turning any one of them over to the Templars would have meant risking exposure for all of them. But I think the bigger issue here is that Hawke is a human with ties to nobility, in a society that regards elves as inferior and commoners as being, well, common. Thus, there are opportunities available to the Hawke family that Varania and her mother probably never had.
That doesn't make her behavior any less reprehensible, though. Rather than betraying her brother, she could (presumably) have gone to a Circle outside Tevinter and gained admission there if she truly wanted to study magic.
I think we can compare Varania's story to Bartrand's. Bartand leaves Varric and co in the Deep Roads to die. And yet, there's so many different ways that story can go. Varric can outright kill him but leave filling empty about it. Or Anders can heal his mind for a minute, and Varric decides that he just doesn't have it in him to kill Bartrand anymore.
I do wonder at what Varania would have to say about what she went through and why she holds the resentment she does (because I definitely think there's some there). But if Bartrand can be granted at least some forgiveness for what he's done, why can't she? I'm not saying what she did wasn't terrible, but that doesn't mean there isn't some tragic backstory there.
Retour en haut
Could I get rebloggable links to these pieces? They're delicious.
