artistically amber

What i do not understand is how people say that cullen cared and tried to protect the mages when he really only stepped in at the very last minute while anders had been spending all his years in kirkwall trying to free the mages.. Or you have what happened with Thrask. I mean cullen could have stepped up and supported what thrask was saying and stood up to Meredith. I refuse to believe that Thrask would turn to violence so quickly. Cullen could have done so much more but he sat on his hands.

You make a good point, and that’s a fair beginning assessment of Cullen’s character.  I don’t know if I personally have said, “Cullen cared” as much as I have said, “Cullen cares.”  In DA2 he made it pretty clear where he stood on mages’ abilities and likely (in his opinion, anyway,) shortcomings.  In DA:I his opinions have grown beyond DA2.  (I have some hypotheses about that, too, one of which you may read toward the bottom of this post).

For my interpretation, I’m not sure Cullen would have been able to intervene on Thrask’s behalf at that point of his own life.  As in, I don’t believe he was emotionally capable and thus not physically capable, of doing so.  Should he have?  Sure, ideally, but most of Thrask’s affiliated quests take place in Act 1, only a year or two after the events of Kinloch Hold.  We know well from DA:I that Cullen is still very much affected by those events over a decade later.  I can’t imagine that in Kirkwall he would have been in any mindset where he would want to help mages in such a way.  Yet, I don’t see that as a failing but rather as someone working through an extremely traumatic experience.  People have certain amounts they can deal with (and wow, I was just writing about that this morning, too.  Hello, coincidental timing), and Cullen was at capacity.  He was very lucky he did not lose his life nor his mind to Uldred’s rebellion.  Fans of Dragon Age who demand that he not only disregard his own experiences at the hands of very brutal mages, but also go beyond neutrality to extreme sympathy are both unfair and unrealistic.

It takes time to work through your own feelings about any complicated situation, and Cullen is definitely more thinking-type than feeling-type.  Who knows how many times he went through his own head about the nature of what was going on?  He certainly did not ignore it, even if he did “sit on his hands”.  Personally, I don’t feel like deliberating on important issues is time wasted, especially if one is moving toward resolution.  It may be that the more moderate character of Templars like Thrask influenced Cullen’s opinions on mages in general.  Regardless, Cullen is someone who is dedicated to his values and he’s not going to switch them on a dime.  It took time for Cullen to see Meredith’s crazy (and I do believe she was absolutely crazy at the end) and the fact that the problems she was creating for mages in Kirkwall likely existed for mages in other places, too.  Some people reached the conclusion faster than he did, but he got there.  And it’s not like he never stood up to Meredith at all, either. 

In DA:I he makes it clear that he is no longer a Templar, but even his values and opinions have changed to the point where he will admit he his previous beliefs were “unworthy” of mages.  I’ve written a lot more about his transformation, with references, here.

So, could Cullen have done more to help mages?  Perhaps.  Was he capable of doing more while being true to his characterization (and by that I mean, not completely neglecting his own experiences)?  I don’t think so.

I think the point of the gif set (perhaps what motivated your question in the first place?) is that a lot of people who don’t like Cullen tend to assign to his character this stance that he always has and always will hate mages, to the point that he would rather they all be dead, when that is simply not the case.

Thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to defend a favorite character of mine and engaging with me in so respectful a manner :)  I really appreciate both points.