- Songlian - wrote...
You've made a very good argument, hands down. Though what I said was "He's more than the cause he's fighting for" and what you answered was "And here's why the cause is so important to him, and why he should stick to it". Which is ok, too, just pointing it out.
The point I was trying to make with that was that him defending the mages in that situation was separate from The Cause of freeing all the mages. I feel the former should be inherent to his status as a mage whose life was ruined by looming threats like the Right of Annulment and Tranquility, while the other is a mantle that he
assumes and is informed by his past but has larger goals in mind. It makes (sorta) sense in my head.
My opinion is that by blowing up the Chantry, he's already supported the system through indirect participation. As you said one paragraph below, the damage was already done. (I think it was KnightOfPhoenix who first said it, so I won't claim it, that) he had no valid plan on how to actually free the mages. He just wanted a revolution. A start. To set things in motion. However you want to call it. But he didn't knew what to do after that, because he actually expected to die afterwards. And most surpringly, whom does he blow up? The crazy mage-doomer Meredith, or the more-balanced cleric Elthina? He blows up Elthina, the voice of reason. And by doing so, he has proven that mages are wacko and dangerous, which was exactly what Meredith wanted.
But now he finally has his revolution. So what happens during this revolution? Not only the guilty mages die, but also the innocents he was trying to protect. Ironically enough, Meredith had called for the Right of Annulment only after Anders blows up the Chantry. Were it not for Anders' rash actions, the Right of Annulment wouldn't have been invoked. The damage is much bigger than the possibility that Meredith's appeal to apply the Right of Annulmnent will be granted. Because, as we know, the Divine Leliana tells us about was determined to see for herself what the situation was all about. To sum it up, Anders had traded a "maybe things will go bad" for a "things will go bad for sure".
Is that enough support of the system already? Because I think it is.
Now, If Hawke decided to side with the templars, Hawke will still want Meredith dead. Meredith, at this point, is the mage's worst enemy. She's the one seeking to destroy the mages. Not the poor templars fighting on the streets for their lives. Regardless with whom Hawke makes an alliance, if Anders wishes to fight against the system as he claims to, and on a greater scale, he must seek to follow Hawke and thus destroy Meredith. Whatever Hawke tells him to, he must do it. Because if he doesn't, he will return to fight against Hawke, against the man seeking to destroy the enemy of the mages.
Wow, Anders really seems to have a knack for supporting the system, doesn't he?
Which is why the pro-Templar option actually makes sense to me, and not only that, but by taking it, I do not think that Anders betrays his views, but helps them instead.
I hope the logic was clear.
If not, we'll just have to agree to disagree, because there's no way in hell I'm doing this reasoning for the second time. 
Does Hawke, at any point, tell Anders that he's against
Meredith? I don't recall getting such an option when I sided with the templars.
Not that it matters. This is what I think:
Anders wanted to break the stalemate, but he also must have known that exposing Meredith's fanaticism would be the best way to do so
and garner some support for those on the fence. By turning himself in, he is offering a perfect and willing scapegoat for her to accept or reject. If she would have rejected him, she could have shown herself to be less extreme than everyone thought she was and could have perhaps won back some of the templars she was losing AND proven to Orsino and the Circle that she was not their enemy.
Instead, she does exactly what he knew she would do. She calls for the Right of Annulment. By jumping on that so quickly, despite Anders taking full responsibility and despite Orsino's protestations and offers of aid in hunting the blood mages in the Circle's ranks, she gives his act power, she proves that she cannot be rational when it comes to mages, that she would madly sacrifice a prison of people who are the MOST innocent in this whole fiasco, and THAT is what forces the confrontation, not merely the Chantry exploding.
The Annulment is also THE way to spur the Circle mages into rising up against the Chantry. What is more unifying than "...or death"? To those of them who remain in the Gallows, having the Right called on them for the actions of someone outside of the Circle, would be (dun dun dun) the last straw, the final proof that, despite everything the good templars say about keeping them safe, their lives are worth nothing in the eyes of the Chantry, if the Chantry is so quick to blame and sacrifice them.
From this perspective, he's not
supporting the Chantry, he's using it's own reactionary methodology to expose it's very injustice.
Which he then can...support. As a solution.
Modifié par SurelyForth, 30 mars 2011 - 06:13 .
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