Sialater wrote...
By the time the Rivalrymance ending rolls around, Anders is broken. (Now, Ryz, hear me out before you yell at me.)
Hawke has spend the past 6 years telling him that the defining moment in his life, when he helped his friend with the best of intentions, doomed them both to the worst kind of existence. Neither Anders nor Justice ever even dreamed this would happen. They went into this symbiotic relationship, each thinking that they'd be different. The worst couldn't possibly happen to them.
They were wrong.
Anders' unresolved anger, apparent even in Awakening, is there, simmering under the surface. A year in solitary, pre-Awakening, didn't help. Neither did Anders apparent transfer within the Grey Wardens away from the protection of OUR Warden, and back under a Templar's thumb. Slowly, Justice started to become infected with
Anders' anger to the point where he slaughtered his brothers in arms.
THIS is Anders' first wake-up call that **** ain't right.
He leaves for Kirkwall to either hide or track down Karl or both. And ends up getting angrier when he realizes his old friend and lover is bait in a trap for him, and only by the grace of the Maker and Hawke that he wasn't trapped in it. This is the second time he loses control to Justice.
The third time is that mage girl who's name utterly escapes me. I've never let her die, so I can't say what he does there, but this is clearly warning sign number three. Anders is losing it.
He dials back for a while, whether because he's content with Hawke, or she really is the distraction Justice claims, is unclear since we're not in Anders' head and we're not given a lot to go on. But Justice is quiet for a time. Probably because nearly killing/or killing that mage scared the hell out of Anders and he manages to wrest semi-permanent control back away.
Hawke, on the rivalrymance path, spends almost every moment in game that they're together underscoring how wrong he was. (Unfortunately, you can't do this without bashing mages in general which is stupid.) This judgment by Hawke starts wearing him down and he begins to question everything. This is the point where Hawke starts breaking him.
The Rivalrymance is brutal. There is no sugarcoating it, you're calling out the person you love (as Hawke) on his **** in the most blunt fashion possible. Sometimes, you're downright cruel. Does he deserve this? I don't know. Depends on your view of abominations.
Anders loves Hawke. Any gender, any morality, he loves Hawke. The Rivalrymance may be tough love, but it's borderline abusive. By the time he emotionally blackmails Hawke into helping (or not), he's ready to die. He's not
suicidal, but he's convinced he's no longer deserving of life. Blowing up the Chantry is Justice for the mages because it forces them to fight. They can no longer be passive. As Justice says in Awakening, "Why don't you strike a blow against your oppressors and ensure they cannot do this to anyone else?" If the mages rise up, they can't be unilaterally oppressed any more. (Not my logic -- hell it's not even Anders' logic, this is Justice, remember?) Once at max Rivalry, Anders tries to undo the bomb, but Justice, now corrupted entirely into Vengeance, takes over and prevents him from doing anything. Couple this with the mage underground imploding due to Grace's stupidity and you have an incredibly desperate man and corrupted spirit.
The Chantry goes boom.
Now, the hard part. Anders, by now, is a broken man. He's clearly lost control of Justice/Vengeance, not once, but four separate times, if not more. After all, he's been having blackouts with Justice/Vengeance doing Maker knows what while he's out. He knows he cannot be trusted. He no longer even trusts himself. And Hawke, the one rock he's come to depend on, the one constant in his personal hell, hasn't killed him. In fact, Hawke offers him a chance at redemption, a chance to try to make up for the ultimate crime of becoming an Abomination. Restore
order to the Circle. Annul the blood mages (whom he doesn't agree with anyway). Try to save the City from splintering into lawlessness. His will is gone. All he has left is Hawke. He doesn't even have himself.
Now, the problem with this is a lot of it is dependent upon subtext in a broken game path. I reserve the right to change my analysis if I ever get to actually play the full, unbugged Rivalry path. 
Do I agree that this is the best path for him? No. But I do think it's within character.
That is the reason why I couldn't rivalmance him(outside of it being broken) I felt the same way on it. Heavens know I felt for the man. I mean seriously his life though not the worst hasn't been a walk in the park. I always saw the rivalry path with him as abusive. You were beating him down into nothing, rather then help him fight back. Almost the more you pushed Justice was pushing harder and the two of you were killing what was left of him.
Some say the friendship path is like "giving a drug user drugs" some thing along those line don't quote me, But I don't see it that way I see it more as you are helping him come to terms in a more peacful way, do Justice doens't push as hard, or that Hawke is excepting that Justice is now a part of Anders and you can't love him without loving the other...even though the other hates you. Hawke knows he/she is his rock, and will continue to do so. So when Justice looses his cool Hawke is there to bring him down...unless poo bombs are invovled...
However the idea of writing a small fic of abusive Hawke and Anders has crossed my mind...but even in fanfiction I don't know I have the strength...
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