14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age 2's companions are more fleshed out than the ones in the first Dragon Age: Origins, but their decisions are a bit weird sometimes.
This is extremely apparent with Anders, the mage that makes a comeback in the new game after his first appearance in Origins' Awakening expansion.
This time, however, Anders isn't the same happy-go-lucky mage, always ready with a quick joke and playing his pet cat, Ser Pounce-a-Lot. Instead, he's changed and becomes much more serious.
Be warned, I will talk about some end-game events, so don't read it if you want to avoid any spoilers.
Anders is now one with the spirit of Justice, another companion from Awakening. His hate towards the templars and desire to see mages set free have warped Justice, however, and is now a demon of Vengeance, always willing to shed blood and go berserk at the very sight of templars or abused mages.
Anders in Dragon Age 2, a mage that is one with a demon and has a burning desire to punish templars, is a far cry from what we saw in Awakening, where he was a very amusing character, but also quite serious when it came to the fate of mages in front of the templars.
While the change in attitude is motivated in his backstory, one of his acts in the end of the game pretty much drops out of nowhere.
One of the main conflicts in Dragon Age 2 is the battle between mages and templars. While you can opt to choose sides from the beginning, you can also advocate reconciliation.
At the end of the game, however, that option is complete eradicated by Anders, who ravages the city of Kirkwall in order to settle the mage-templar conflict once and for all.
From playing with kitties to committing acts of terrorism, Anders is no longer the same character we knew before.
I, for one, admire character development, but this is taking things a bit too far.
What do you think? Is the metamorphosis of Anders a great addition to the Dragon Age 2 story or did BioWare need to make fewer changes to his character?