[DA2] Fenris is... kind of the worst?

I've recently been going through my first replay of DA2, and I'm genuinely struck by how awful this man is to almost everyone around him, bar Hawke. He's aggressively caustic toward specifically Bethany, Anders, Merrill, Carver, and even Sebastian. Since I want to save the mages for last, I'll start with Sebastian and Carver.

Barring their mutual support for the templar order, Fenris and Sebastian don't really get along. This is one I really can't blame him for- While they both believe in some version of the Maker, Sebastian's insistence that Fenris's past was all a part of His plan is infuriating. I mostly included this section just because the two don't really get along.

When it comes to Carver, there is, once again, not too much to say. This is because the two barely have any interaction. Carver comes off as... well, he comes off as his usually awkward self, asking questions that are consistently a little bit out of line. In response, Fenris retaliates with the repeated insinuation that every one of Carver's problems in life is imagined by him. Yes, really. The only exception is that one banter about Carver's tattoo.

Moving on to the mages, I'd like to touch on Bethany for a moment. She, like Carver, has barely any dialogue with Fenris, but what is there isn't pretty. There's a vague suggestion that the Hawke family should've abandoned her, and, in another banter, he outright says she would be better off submitting to the Circle. When Bethany answers that she didn't choose to be a mage, he replies that nobody chooses their fate.

...What the fuck? Is Fenris pro-slavery? Does he believe that people should be enslaved if they aren't strong enough to escape? The answer, clearly, must be no- that makes very little sense given who he is. Surely that last line is just Fenris acting mildly out of character, so let's move on.

Nope, one of Fenris's act 1 banters with Anders confirms that he is absolutely pro-slavery, albeit only for mages. Here's the text:

• Anders: You ever going to stop harping on the mages here?
• Fenris: No.
• Anders: They aren't what you saw in Tevinter.
• Fenris: The moment they are free, mages will make themselves magisters.
• Anders: They're slaves! You should want to help them.
• Fenris: I don't.

Wild. Aside from that, most of his act 1 dialogue with Anders places him as an aggressor. At one point, he implies Karl deserved Tranquility, and, when answered that Tranquility is a horrific punishment regardless of cause, he insinuates that all mages should be made tranquil because of their possibility to attract demons. Fenris largely remains the same in later acts, but Anders in acts 2 and 3 is consistently aggressive toward him so it's IMO understandable. Aside from that one line where he seems to think that mages aren't at all persecuted, he's not really any worse in the later acts when it comes to Anders.

Moving on to Merrill, there's no way to sugarcoat the fact that Fenris kind of treats her like shit. She gets an even worse side of him than Anders does, IMO. His total disdain for the Dalish, combined with his default hatred of her because she's a mage, makes for some genuinely messed up interactions. He consistently belittles her for basically anything he can think of, and it's not even in just the banter. I'd genuinely urge anyone playing this game to keep these two in one party, because there's a lot more of Fenris's nastiness here than I can really highlight. I'm particularly amused by one scene where he tells Merrill he's sorry for the death of the Keeper, and then, realizing he's not being enough of a jackass, clarifies that he's actually fine with the fact that she's dead and only wishes she died for a better cause. What the hell.

Fenris believes that every mage would become a Tevinter magister given the chance, and thus they should all be made tranquil. This is an incredibly shitty viewpoint, but it's at least understandable in act 1. The crux of the matter is that Fenris refuses to change. You can challenge his inane beliefs at every point, and he still maintains that mages are a group that should be cleansed from the world.

In act 3, he will complain about the greed that causes magisters to do what they do, and upon you pointing out that it's the greed and not the magic that's problematic, he immediately pivots to blaming magic once again, even trying to use Leandra's death as some kind of evidence toward his point. This is genuinely incredible. Imagine if your mother had been killed by someone of a particular group, and someone tried to use this as ammunition to convince you that group should all be killed. Even if they were somehow right, that's an absolutely horrible thing to do.

Ultimately, my issue with Fenris is the fact that in some regards, he's a static character. In act 1 his behavior is understandable, but by Act 3 he's pivoted into being a full-on bigot, if only by his refusal to change. He is often paralleled to Anders in this community, but Anders has only ever hated people for what they choose to do, not what they are. Anders at least has an excuse for his behavior later in the story, he's actively going insane due to demonic possession. Unless Fenris's lyrium markings are affecting his sanity, he just chooses to be the way he is. He sees Meredith going straight-up crazy, he sees templars using tranquil mages as sex slaves, and he spends time with at least one mage who's done nothing wrong and has been forced to run from enslavement their whole life. His response to that is, "Actually, this is all a good thing. In fact, they should just kill or Tranquilize mages immediately before they can grow."

In retrospect, I kind of hate this guy.