Good, but forgive me if I don't believe you.
You know, I like to think the same as you do with the whole Qunari plot, I would never give Isabela to the arishock, and I excuse it saying "the arishock was crazy, he attacked innocent people just because he wanted, they were not related to the thief or the relic"
But is not true, if it was a random thief the one who stole the relic, I would hand over him to the qunari in a second.
Feelings make us terrible hypocrites.
I see the attack on the Chantry as an act of war. The Chantry is responsible for the incarceration of mages and Elthina had the power to act and wouldn't. I see her as bearing full responsibility for the state of Kirkwall, and I believe the mages would have continued to suffer indefinitely there if nothing had been done. I believe in "second" chances, but Elthina had a decade to do something and wouldn't. The issue is, I don't think it's wrong to attack an organization like the Chantry. The Templars were essentially their army. If they wouldn't move to control them, then they're culpable for the negative ramifications. I see them as a fair target and sometimes violence must be used to forcefully stop violence. Innocent people may have died, but that's how war works. Innocent people will always die, and the Chantry was hurting innocent people already. I agree with what Anders did and I think the outcome, now that we've seen it, further justifies the means. He wanted mages to be free and his actions ultimately were responsible for that happening. I don't have any qualms with what Anders did. If you think rebel fighters are inherently bad and that war is only for people with special flags and crowns, then it's bad, but that's not my perspective.
My issue with Isabela is that honestly I don't see any benefit in leaving the Arishok alive. It's not like he gave me that option before he'd already attacked the city. He waited until it was already to a point where I could just kill him to end it. What was the benefit of leaving him alive, really? The Qunari make no secret that they want to conquer all of Thedas and force their beliefs on everyone through literal brainwashing, if necessary. Killing the Arishok is a perfectly good way to destabilize what's essentially an enemy and by the point you have the option to give up Isabela, it's not like it would stop the attack on Kirkwall. They already did that and you've already fought through them to get to him. Killing him is going to end it just as surely as letting him go and your enemy loses their leader. There's really not much of a drawback. If handing over Isabela actually stopped the attack and saved people, then it might be different. Ultimate.. it really doesn't fix anything. A dead Arishok is a better outcome than an alive Arishok, imo, with or without Isabela. If it was a random thief, I still wouldn't see how leaving the Arishok alive at that point was necessarily a good thing. I'd rather give the thief a chance than the Arishok.
But I think, to me, the issue is that Elthina and the Arishok had all this time to become better people in game and instead of that they continue to wholly embody bad people, by my own measure. They're not going to "get better" after years of experience with them, especially since they're literally the figureheads of what I see as two enemy factions in the world state. They're way beyond a second chance and, in fact, have only caused harm and negativity in the world, as far as I'm concerned. There's literally no positive that I see in keeping these people alive. They're the type of people that the world is better without. I see hope for Isabela and Anders, but I don't see it for Elthina and the Arishok.