what i love about anders’ story is that in the end, it’s not a tragedy.
what i I love is how this game shows you, over and over again, people driven into corners to the point of destroying themselves and turning themselves into monsters and you never have a chance to save them - until Anders. because he sacrifices himself to give them all a way out, to give them a chance to change the world,
and finally, finally, you get to help the person driven into the corner, and it’s such a relief after year after year of having to stand by and watch one tragedy after another play out, and he’s so shocked and so delighted - he was so convinced he was going to be on his own again. turned over to the templars over and over again, escape attempts that ended when someone turned him in, learned as a child that he can’t trust his own family to stand by him; and karl taken away twice over; and the wardens promised him sanctuary and then recruited a templar to watch his every move, sent him along on every mission; and the mage underground’s been decimated and meredith’s sent for the right of annulment and he’s the only one left, everyone he’s ever counted on has turned on him or left him or been taken away, why would he ever expect otherwise -
but not this time. the world has changed, and when he realizes it he lights up, you mean… stay with you? i didn’t think you’d let me. but if you do… i’ll fight the templars, damn right i will, full of hope for the future, ten years, a hundred years from now, and finally the person driven into the corner gets to come back from it, finally he’s not on his own, he gets support, he gets people willing to fight beside him, he gets to live and love and tear down the city of chains and run off into the sunset, he gets to buy his people a chance at freedom, he gets everything he ever wanted.
i love this story because it’s about finally escaping from tragedy.
