Everyone I've met has called Anders a "whiny *****" and disliked him intensely. They say a lot of other things wrong with Dragon Age 2 but I don't tend to notice. I romance him on my Male Hawkes all the time, I can't stand Fenris so Anders is really my only option. Anyone else like him?
He was more fun in Awakening. He was always telling jokes.
Like you can offer Fenris to Danarius and then change your mind and then Fenris is like oh no problem -french kiss.
Lol, I've always been a bit curious about this but never chose it myself. You'd think that such a thing, said even in jest, should break the romance right then and there.
As a character: An amazing complicated character that is the result of merging an "Alistair" like mage with a very untrustworthy spirit. We get a character who isn't entirely in control of his own rage combined with the seeds of rebellion. He will use people to reach his own ends. Suffice to say this is not the same Anders we met in Awakening. To me that Anders was not my cup of tea. This new anders is interesting, unpredictable and duplicitous. He has everything I look for in a character and more. If only he didn't go on so much about the Mage vs Templar conflict. Sometimes he sounds like a broken record.
But I have got to admit. His duplicity and using of Hawke to reach his own ends, and then his martyrdom at the end of Act 3. I loved that! I love conniving and manipulation. Pretty much why Chancellor Palatine was my favourite character of the prequels.
As a combatant: Only on my mage play through did I pick the spirit healer specialisation. Even then I found Anders to be really helpful for additional healing. Without playing as a mage, I found Anders essential. I built him as a healer, creation/arcane type character. However he can be built as an extremely powerful dps/crowd control character too. So there are so many great possibilities.
As a person: I can't stand him. Sorry. I don't have to like a character to enjoy them. With that approach, Scarface is flat out unwatchable. He goes on and on about the Mage/Templar conflict. When he's not doing that he then pesters Merrill about her naivety towards spirits. Oh the irony... Personally I would have liked him a lot more if mage related topics were only one facet of his personality. Just more topics to talk about. Sure he has moments when he talks about other stuff but it's normally mage/templar conflict. UGH...
Dealing with demons or siding with Templars immediately ends Anders' romance. No other character has these red lines which are a must in a successful and real romance.
You can perfectly continue the romance with Anders siding with Templars if you Rival him. He only breaks it up on Friendship.
EDIT: Sebastian breaks up with Hawke no matter what if Anders is not executed, btw. That's a pretty big red line.
Indeed but Seb romance is kinda meh anyways. Also I was comparing to other 3 main romance companions.You can perfectly continue the romance with Anders siding with Templars if you Rival him. He only breaks it up on Friendship.
EDIT: Sebastian breaks up with Hawke no matter what if Anders is not executed, btw. That's a pretty big red line.
Indeed but Seb romance is kinda meh anyways. Also I was comparing to other 3 main romance companions.
Anders does break the romance you just don't have enough time to notice since the game ends. Varric DOES NOT say everyone left Hawke except Anders like he would if you are romancing Anders.
Yes, I agree that Seb romance is definitely lacking, but nonetheless it is a moral stand he will not bend for anybody. And Fenris leaves Hawke forever if the situation with slavers and Hadrianna is not resolved (you do not complete the quest), so he has lines he doesn't allow anybody to cross either. Even if it is not 100% romance-related.
Epilogue might be a bug or oversight, just like Varric doesn't mention Sebastian or mentions Isabela even if Hawke romanced somebody else. In game Anders does not break up with Hawke.
It really doesn't look like a break up speech to me.
How in the hell did he get that conversation? Anders raged in my rivalry playthrough, He kisses Hawke in that video! Dafuq. Maybe it has something to do with his quests?
Also didn't Fenris let his guard down AFTER that quest? Meaning in order to get past simple flirting you actually have to finish that quest to start a romance with him and that's understandable given he kinda feels safe after that quest, at least temporarily. There are instances that he should have broken up with you but he doesn't such as suggesting to give him to Danarious or having a slave of your own.
Merril is the same. Isabela simply doesn't care enough. 
How in the hell did he get that conversation? Anders raged in my rivalry playthrough, He kisses Hawke in that video! Dafuq. Maybe it has something to do with his quests?
Also didn't Fenris let his guard down AFTER that quest? Meaning in order to get past simple flirting you actually have to finish that quest to start a romance with him and that's understandable given he kinda feels safe after that quest, at least temporarily. There are instances that he should have broken up with you but he doesn't such as suggesting to give him to Danarious or having a slave of your own.
Merril is the same. Isabela simply doesn't care enough.
I don't know, I get that ending all the time if I romance Anders on Rivalry and side with Templars, which was about... mm... 3 times, I guess. All his quests were always done.
Regarding Fenris and Danarius - sure, him not breaking up with Hawke doesn't make sence, but neither does the fact that you can go through the whole game being a complete mage hater (and killer) and Anders doesn't give you fireball in the face on several occasions he definitely should if you think about it. I don't think it is the case of high or low moral ground - just game limitations. Maybe the developer who programmed the game just didn't think that Hawke who romanced Fenris would consider turning him in, for example? I also can suggest that Fenris could think in the end Hawke just tried to lure Danarius in the false sense of security while evaluating the plan of battle?
I agree Isabela doesn't care in any case, it is not in her nature. )) Merrill I could see breaking with Hawke under certain circumstances, but I guess we just didn't have a proper situation in the game to evaluate it for sure.
EDIT: just thought about something that might influence Rivalry ending - I generally ended all Anders quests "good" way despite Rivaling him - Ella lives, Feynriel lives... etc. Could it be the factor for "good" Rival ending maybe?
Eeeeeh. I really, really liked him in Awakening, but in DA2, he was a bit annoying but alright.
I have very mixed feelings for the character. He was being a puppet who did an act of terrorism and escalated the Mage/Templar War with just one act. I am still not sure if to kill him or not. If I kill him, (speculation here) I might turn him into a Martyr in the eyes of many Mages. If I don't, eventually he will be pure Vengeance and that isn't good either. Loose-Loose situation.
We don't really know that, a friend Anders has reached complete harmony with spirit within and its somewhat doubtful he will change any further than that because there is no reason to, both Justice and Anders have influenced each other completely at that point.
Love or Hate him one thing is for sure he is an extremist even if you like the mages you can't really feel bad for the guy.
Anders is a brilliant character.
Two and a half years on, and he can still inspire a 20 page thread. How can anyone not like that?
Sebastian was right about Anders all along. He says a few times in your party or when you talk to him if your romancing anders to be careful of him he is selfish or something like that and what do you know he predicted act 3 very well.
What anders did was very selfish in the end and will only bring on bad things he did not think of the consequences and war he was starting he pretty much fucked over all mages who wanted peace.
I still always side with mages though anders is just one terrorist i wont blame other mages for his actions.
Guest_ZenMusic_*
He was more fun in Awakening. He was always telling jokes.
That's because he had a personality in Awakening. In DA2 he has nothing to say other than "mages are oppressed" and he just repeats that line in different ways over and over again.
He was great in awakening. All Mages blah blah Templars blah blah Justice blah blah in 2.
It doens't help I hated Justice in Awakening.
@Cooperb21 And what Sebastian does if Hawke keeps Anders alive isn't exactly selfless either...
True but at least he did not harm or kill anyone doing so.
Guest_ZenMusic_*
I think people often forget the influence Justice has on him.
I rarely kill him, for a variety of reasons, but number 1 is because I refuse to let Justice have a martyr to his cause.
Yeah, an Anders romance turns DA2 from something of a tragedy, in the traditional thematic sense of the term, into a full blown one.
And yes, although Sebastian does somewhat diagnose Anders correctly (I wouldn't say selfishness was his problem....the problem is a very real and overpowering desire to see mages freed, coupled with merging with a sprit with no real concept of time, a lack of alternative options, unwillingness to compromise from his goal and an ethics of "the end justifies the means") let us remember that Sebastian, as a devout lay brother and potential romance for Hawke, is not exactly a disinterested party here.
And yes...that threat. I don't want to spoil DA:I for anyone, but let's just say it is referenced in the game as to what becomes of that.
I've said this in other places, and I can understand why Anders did what he did, without condoning it. The Mage-Templar struggle was a war, though no-one was willing to admit it. The Templars refused the notion of compromise....and so did many of the mages, turning to radical libertarian factions and blood magic to win their their freedom (and if there are many mages who definitely shouldn't be allowed complete freedom, it's the ones with mind-control powers).
The situation was at an impasse, but could likely drag on for decades more, with less radical Templars and more Aequitarian mages attempting to find solutions...ultimately failing because of the direction the Circles and the Order were taking, but prolonging the inevitable conflict, and making the situation worse for everyone.
Anders' solution, such as it was, was to make it impossible for the moderates to negotiate, to "remove the possibility of compromise, because there can be no compromise" in his words. In a strategic sense, it's actually quite a brilliant move. It completely alters the terrain of the conflict to the terms he wanted, the outright warfare between mages and templars, where the conflict could finally be settled in a decisive fashion.
Of course, it's also a flawed view, because nothing is ever settled in a decisive fashion in politics, and the question of mages is of course a highly political one in Thedas. Even if the mages "win", the Chantry view is too deeply entrenched to be replaced simply through military victory. And the other problem is of course magical war weakens the Fade, which based on the last two games is not so much of a strict wall between realities as an extremely thin and sometimes virtually nonexistant barrier.
And it's also flawed because it requires the death of thousands of innocent people (maybe. What was the death toll from the Chantry exploding? It didn't look good, that's for sure).
But then, that's also the part of the brilliance of Anders, as a character. He encapsulates everything that is wrong about the Templar oppression of mages, with everything that is wrong about groups and indviduals who use extreme and bloody methods to oppose their oppressors. No reasonable person can deny the mages are treated very badly, at the least in Kirkwall...but equally, nor easonable person can deny Anders response to that was also a terrible crime. The moral dilemma is expressed extremely well, this thread and the hundreds of others like it being excellent proof of the case.
@Ashevajak, I think you really hit the nail on the head. Very well formulated 
I love Anders. He was one of my favorite companions in Awakening and Ihad him with me for every mission. I do like the depth of change in DA 2 with him. Most of the characters are the same all through the game, but in the 7 yr time period you see him go from a weird and funny companion in the beginning and twist into Justices warped sense of vengence. I especially like if you rival romance him and have the convo where he wonders if he isn't going to far and Justice takes hold of him and tells Hawke that she/he needs to leave and Anders does not need Hawke in his life. When Anders comes back he tells you he blanks out a lot now and doesn't remember anything said. It really shows how Anders was a shell to Justice/Vengence will and makes me feel like Anders would not of blown up the Chantry otherwise. It is even more tragic and the only time I ever killed Anders was my Hawke who romanced Sebastian had to in order to keep the romance. In other threads I have stated my dislike of Sebastian's character in that moment. I feel for him to loose the Grand Cleric, but not enough to kill someone who is being used by a Spirit. I guess he is the only Abomination I can feel anger towards,lol. But Anders I suppose fills the tragic character you want to help save but can't. Do you give up on someone at that moment or do you stay true and continue to hope to find a way to help him? I mean Hawke murders people left and right in the game and your party members are right there and no one threatens to march an army on Hawke for it, so why is it OK for Hawke to kill (and sometimes it is not truly justified) and yet for Anders it isn't? At least Anders has a Spirit twisting him into something I do not think he would do otherwise. Whats Hawke's excuse? Uh yeah, I want his money/stuff or heck just plan your in my way Dude, so you must die mode? I mean if you really want to get into it on the whole Anders vs Sebastian thing than look at Sebatian Act 2 quest. He kills his Mother's Friend because a Desire Demon twisted her jealousy of his family into something that murdered his Family and the only thing he says is he wants to pray for her soul? So yeah, when I look back, I do not see Anders as any worse then any of Hawke's other companions or anyone else who has killed in the game. What makes the game a game is the fact that you have to kill people, some evil, some not so evil (or at least tainted into doing things they wouldn't otherwise) to rise to power.
Or maybe its just cause he has a thing for yellow tabby cats and I happen to have a yellow tabby who I can't imagine life without? Or maybe its just the fact that Ander's in the only person you can romance who cause you love all the time and actually acts like someone deeply in love with Hawke from the moment they kiss until the end? At any rate, I love Anders character and find his twisted, crazy but loveable personality attractive....
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Almost was enough to make Me like DA2...almost.
