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[sassperella]

When looking at Anders and his affect on the story of this game, I find it interesting the way Bioware approached it.

Connor virtually wiped out an entire village in DA:O. He willingly joined with a demon to save his father, an incredibly selfish act that resulted in mass death. Most people wanted to save him and they forgave him because he's a kid and it wasn't his fault it was the demon yadda yadda yadda.

Sten killed a completely innocent family including children for no more reason than he couldn't find his sword and panicked.... Now many people left him in the cage but a lot saved him and took him with them as a companion.

Loghain killed thousands by leaving them to die on the battlefield when he ran away, including the king of ferelden and all the innocents that worked at the army camp in Ostagar... Here we're on shakier territory, a lot more people were happy to kill Loghain but quite a few saved him and had him in their party.

Then there were the darker choices of allies - golems, werewolves, templars, reavers all came with a price and the death of innocents, hell in the case of the reaver you defiled Andraste's ashes. But none left such a bad taste in the mouth as forgiving Anders in DA2.

Anders..... Yes he killed some people in the chantry to further his cause, probably less than Conner, and certainly less than loghain. He, like connor was possessed and if you follow a lot of his conversations especially on the rivaly romance, he's not in full control of himself. Anders in Awakening would not have done this. 

The difference with Anders is, Bioware manipulated the audience by using terrorism. Terrorism is a huge issue especially after 9/11 in our real world, something that is abhorrent and unforgivable. It is something that plays upon our emotions in a way an army of undead marching on a village doesn't. Thedas is a violent world, people die all the time, both innocent and guilty and this is pretty much accepted. There is more violence and death and destruction in five minutes of gameplay than anyone would experience in a lifetime in the real world.

But by introducing something that is so close to home as terrorism and recreating a 9/11 event they have taken away all possible empathy with a character and his actions, made it feel wrong to feel any empathy for him. People that do feel empathy are implicated as terrorist sympathisers and you're made to feel guilty for keeping him with you and not instantly ending his life. It is impossible to consider his actions in the context ofThedas without mentally referencing 9/11.

Now whether this is a bad thing or not is a matter of opinion, but in a fantasy game that takes us out of real life into a fantasy world of sword and sorcery, while it was a jaw dropping moment and had a huge impact on the game, it did feel that they just used one of the most appalling real world events rather than be more creative in their approach.

[Sarah1281]

He willingly joined with a demon to save his father, an incredibly selfish act that resulted in mass death. Most people wanted to save him and they forgave him because he's a kid and it wasn't his fault it was the demon yadda yadda yadda.

You have to wonder just how 'willingly' this is when the demon approached him in a dream and he has no idea what it is.

[sassperella]

Sarah1281 wrote...

He willingly joined with a demon to save his father, an incredibly selfish act that resulted in mass death. Most people wanted to save him and they forgave him because he's a kid and it wasn't his fault it was the demon yadda yadda yadda.

You have to wonder just how 'willingly' this is when the demon approached him in a dream and he has no idea what it is.

While that is maybe true, Irving states that because it was willingly conner can be saved, so it was actually a willing possession.