#bought to you by a fresh wave of fenris and anders drama

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

I'm not a Fenders person but it's some of my favourite Dragon Age fanfiction because it takes two blinkered characters that care violently about freedom and oppression, yet who're aggressively opposed to each other, and puts them into situations that interrogate them to the point where they begin to understand how much common ground they actually have. It's a relationship that has the potential to explore the issues and themes in Dragon Age the most.

I think canonically, though, a romantic relationship would only work when they were older and had more distance, wisdom, and hindsight. Maybe a little like the Enemies to Lovers husbands in The Old Guard. Fenris, at least, has plenty of time to get there emotionally as it's implied he may be immortal due to the lyrium in his body. As for Anders, who knows what merging with Justice has done to his life expectancy— I see him as being in a similar position to Cole now, only starting as human rather than a spirit. But if Fenris and Anders had begun anything in Kirkwall, coloured as it would've been by sharpened and complicated darker feelings, Fenris would never forgive Anders for going behind his back. As it is, I believe it'd be extremely difficult for a romanced Fenris to forgive Hawke for doing the Inquisition quest without telling him.

I also just dislike how any online conversations around Anders and Fenris cannot escape this one dimensional exaggeration of their animosity. Dragon Age 2 is ridden by poorly thought out choices and OOC moments that prop up rushed gameplay mechanics. So it is transparent and annoying that Anders is the only character held to these rigidly self-righteous standards.

What I'm saying is that I'm not a Fenders person, but sometimes I absolutely am a Fenders person out of spite. Forgive me, I'm channelling two spikey haters.