With what?
I understand their reasons. Certainly it's not going to make me repeat Alexius' actions and indenture them in turn.
I wasn't suggesting Vivienne was different because she knew more about magic -- I was suggesting she's different because she's not a character hating something different than herself like Fenris (nor is she hating mages at all, actually). And being egotistical doesn't mean you're irrational. I didn't feel like dissecting why your logic doesn't work, and this is seriously all the effort I'm willing to put into it, lol. Suffice to say, none of your examples up there apply.
As to Fiona, I understand being desperate and afraid, but if freedom was so important, she threw it away again awfully quickly. But not conscripting the mages? I can only do that on a character that enjoys chaos and doesn't care who could get hurt, because at the end of the day, Dumb Fiona is still in charge in that scenario. Templars at least get Ser Barris, who proves after the fact (via wartable missions) that he's both capable and compassionate.
Even my decent, libertarian mage conscripted the mages, lol. That's how incompetent I think Fiona is. I wasn't playing my mage as a stupid character, and she wanted her freedom to actually last.