Darth Brotarian wrote...
Silfren wrote...
Darth Brotarian wrote...
The whole issue with mages is probably one of the most interesting takes on it, in that most people don't place x-men ideas into fantasy. But yeah, just like how I feel the mutant and superhuman registration acts are not only fair and reasonable, but pretty good ideas when dealing with people who have the potential to blow up a city block and kill hundreds of people on a whim and can't be disarmed humanely, I feel that the whole "mages should be equal" line a bit unthoughtful.
If you actually sit down and think on things, mages are by their very nature unequal to everyone else. They have access to power that can't be humanely disarmed, have countless abilities to not only threaten countless lives, but be undetectable until they enact their plans, and can only be neutralized by extremely skilled fighters or specially trained knights. They need more restrictions on them then the average person, just like a person who has firearms has more restrictions placed on them then everyone else. A man with a gun could be the most responsible person on the planet, but we would find it insane to allow such a person to bring their gun to, say, a school during a parent teacher conference. Or a church for sunday mass, or a theater to watch a movie, or a mall in order to do some casual shopping. And we would especially have a problem with said gun not being in any sort of case or holster, but just carried around at all times armed and loaded.
We DON'T place extra restrictions on people who own firearms. We have laws pertaining to the ownership and use of the firearms that can be pretty specific in the particulars of how and when and where and under what circumstances, but we most assuredly do NOT place restrictions on the people who own those firearms. Not unless and until they commit a crime using said firearm.
Mages cannot be separated from their firearms, it's true. However, we cannot use the fact of this inability to separate to forget that they are people, too, and are no less deserving of basic rights than anyone else, especially when they haven't committed any crimes with their powers. And I have seen no evidence proving conclusively that mages are so inherently dangerous and so inevitably predisposed to corruption that they have to be pre-emptively locked up for everyone's good, no evidence that free mages can and will only ever lead to Tevinter. Enough free mages interact freely with their fellows to show that such a thing IS possible.
Where exactly are these free mage examples of yours? Cause most of the mages we seemed to run into who weren't with the circle, were extremly dangerous and evil(morrigan and flemeth), with a already strict social order with their own form of regulation and enforced rules(Dalish), or were just plain crazy blood mages.
And I would argue that there is conclusive evidence that regular people are just as dangerous and prone to corruption as mages are, and mages are as suseptible to falling into these traps as regular people are. Reasonable suspicion and probable cause wouldn't exist if people already weren't capable of being less then upstandingly behaved, and so it stands to reason that with mages being the same as regular people, they to are at risk. But unlike a normal person, who can be disarmed, or restrained, without much effort, mages cannot be disarmed, and can but up a much more powerful fight resisting then a regular person can. They are more dangerous because of those two factors, and should be looked at as such.
Morrigan and Flemeth do come to mind; I think it's arguable how evil they are. As for dangerous, yes, but NOT for being the equivalent of bombs that could go off any moment: both women are in control of themselves and don't give any indication of being liable to turn into abominations and level the surrounding villages. Nor do either of them appear interested in dealing with demons.
As for others, well, there's Wynne and Merrill, then there's Wilhelm and his son whatshisface. There's Ines and Fiona and every other mage who has ever been placed with the Grey Wardens, and Finn, and Jowan. I could come up with more if I were more awake and had time to comb through the games and books.
All of these mages were either free of the Circle entirely, or free for a substantial period of time. None of them caused the kind of harm the Chantry insists is not merely a risk but an extreme likelihood. The only one who did any real harm was Jowan, but his actions--I'm restricting things to what he did himself, and not anything he triggered with Connor, just so we're clear--were not appreciably different from what any mundane could have done. I could also include Anders on this list since he was free and running about without causing any harm for a good long while before he decided to Jenga the Chantry.
I will repeat that I am referring to the potential for catastrophic harm due to demons and blood magic. If mages are SO inescapably prone to temptation and pose risks of danger that far outstrip what any mundane could do, then it stands to reason that no mage should ever be permitted outside the Circle for any reason. Especially those mages who were never in a Circle to begin with, like Morrigan or Wilhelm's son. But even the Harrowing is no guarantee. I am NOT including limited things like Jowan's poisoning of Eamon because any mundane person could do that and there's nothing especially more corrupt at play here just because a mage did it.
I would also argue that most of the examples of "crazy blood mages" usually are shown to be a product of the Chantry's counterproductive methods in the first place.
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