shrimp-crackers:

LBR HERE THE FACT THAT ANDERS IS A MEDIEVAL WHITE LIB FEMINIST IS THE REASON WHY I DON’T UNDERSTAND PEOPLE WHO KILL HIM

LIKE??? KILLING HIIM WOULD ALMOST BE REWARDING ANDERS???? LIKE HAHA WHAT IS RESPONSIBILITY  

i have very strong feelings about martyr characters because those are the sorts of people who think that their punishment will actually REDEEM their sins. as if their ruined life is genuinely worth the ruined life of so many others. death is not justification for ANYTHING that a person has done in their life, and characters who believe otherwise are just so fascinating to me. like holy fucking shit your EGO IS HUGE AS BALLS let me poke it with a stick to see what happens

I don’t think Anders believes that his death at the end of DA2 justifies his actions, though. I don’t think he even wants to die at all, unless your Hawke sides with the Templars, which canonically makes him suicidal. 

I don’t think he views himself as a martyr and I’m not even entirely convinced he views what he did at the Chantry as a “sin” that needs to be redeemed or justified as much as a necessary course of action he was forced into after seven years of alternative efforts did nothing. Anders will take responsibility for blowing the Chantry up but doesn’t apologize for what he did.

If anything, Ander is almost egoless, one of his biggest problems, and wholly committed to the cause. He doesn’t want to die, especially if he’s romanced Hawke imo. But if he dies and his death is something for mages to latch onto, if they make him a martyr—if his death helps the movement, I think he’d be at peace with that. But being a martyr for martyrdom’s sake or for some notion of atonement doesn’t appeal to him. 

Honestly I view him as more radical than anything else. The liberals of Dragon Age are the Circle mages who want to reform it from the inside, the ones who are like “the system isn’t flawed, just the people running it”, the ones who can insist Circles can work and not all templars are bad, etc etc. As I get more radical myself I grow more fond of Anders, actually, even though I used to be number one Anders hater. 

I dunno, I was just walking home from work and remembered this post and couldn’t get it out of my head.