#tbc you can skip the gift conversations and still romance him. like you can be with fenris and not know he can't read for example

[shivunin]

I think it's really fascinating that either way you activate his romance scene, Fenris doesn't come to Hawke that night until after he explains about the Fog Warriors (you can kill Hadriana and still not activate his romance scene if you have not had this conversation). There are are a few romance options in that conversation that might explain this ("few pleasures greater than speaking with a beautiful woman," the two lines about whether you're attracted to each other), but I think that divulging how he escaped is the actual keystone there.

Fenris talks about how the Fog Warriors are "free with their affections" and (though you can also take this as an implication that he was romantically/sexually involved with some of them) I feel this could be intended as a kind of implicit warning: "These people sheltered me, they gave me space to recover, they offered me affection and freedom, and look what I did to them. Do you see what I am capable of?"

You cannot skip this conversation and continue his romance. Idk if it's the process of telling Hawke that matters (he himself says he's never told anyone), that explaining it aloud is what makes him realizes how much he trusts Hawke, or if Hawke knowing acts as a sort of prerequisite for further intimacy, but....augh. I have played that conversation through a dozen times and I am still thinking about it.