Alright. *cracks knuckles* I’m going to regret this, but brace yourself for why I think that’s bullshit.
1 ) The Chantry is in HIGH TOWN as probably one of the largest, most extravagant buildings in Kirkwall. It is also surrounded by several estates housing nobles and servants of all ages and genders, and the brothel, viscount’s palace, and merchant establishments, such as can be found in the Dwarven District. When Anders blew up the chantry—regardless of whether it was empty inside—the debris from the explosion would have killed and injured hundreds of people. It probably destroyed High Town and the mage/templar battle that ensued likely caused more damage to the city. Now, I’m not economically savvy but Kirkwall was still recovering from the qunari when Anders decided what was best for the mages, inevitably dooming Kirkwall to destruction and eventually, higher taxes and so forth to restore the city.
2 ) “The sisters are corrupt” is not reason enough, in my eyes, to kill them. How do you know they were all corrupt? Who are you to say they are corrupt, instead of simply close-minded or misguided? Not all the sisters in the chantry were Petrice. “Sitting on their asses” is even less of an excuse to kill someone! They deserve to die for being lazy? Is that what you’re saying?
3 ) Civilians don’t need to be outside to be in danger. Many people go to church at night. The homeless and poor wander into churches at night. There were obviously people around when Anders blew up the chantry and, once he did, they were certainly “out” by then, having heard the sound of a catastrophic explosion and seeing it light up their city.
4 ) Anders murdered people in the name of a cause he believed in. That qualifies as terrorism to me. Murder is murder; it’s wrong no matter how you slice it. His intentions and his reasons pale considerably when an entire city full of innocent people is endangered, either by the falling debris or the resulting battle.
And I don’t even play Assassin’s Creed.
“Not being able to side with The Arishok. (064)”
Wait. Really? I mean, this is worse than siding with the templars in many ways (and for the sake of this argument, I’m assuming player-sympathy rather than character-sympathy here as I’ve talked to far too many people on the BSN who are very much pro-Qun).
Let’s take a refresher in what supporting the Arishok means. It means that all mages get their mouths sewn shut, are dehumanized to the point of not being viewed as sentient beings at all (the name saarebas translates into “dangerous thing,” after all), and are obligated to kill themselves if they’re ever out of contact from their masters. This goes beyond the already horrific practice of slavery because you are teaching an already marginalized group that they not only don’t have rights, but don’t have any sort of value the way other humans (or Kossith) do.
But hey, you say, I’m not a mage. Why do I care? Well, because the Qun also features a rigid caste system that you can’t escape. Are you a woman who wants to fight? Tough nuts, because the Qun says men do it better. So even if you’re really suited towards being a warrior, because the Qun believes men are physically more suited for this work, you don’t get to fight. If you’re really lucky, maybe they’ll let you join the Ben-Hassrath. There you can indoctrinate and brainwash other people into seeing how you see.
I know the games haven’t specifically gone into brainwashing techniques yet, but I’ve studied up on them when I was learning about cults for my studies in criminology. Many common techniques include: food and water deprivation, randomly alternating periods of light and darkness, constant loud music, sleep deprivation, etc. Experts have found that if you keep your subjects from sleeping and take away their ability to tell time, you can pretty much make any person susceptible to programming in as few as three days. Assuming the Qun aren’t this advanced, we’re probably talking a week or more of hellish conditions just to churn out loyal followers to the Qun.
Furthermore, this is a culture that stifles free will. We’re talking no choosing what you want to do, who you want to marry (because “breeding” is tightly controlled by the Qun), or anything else. You do as you’re told and that’s it. It’s really a kind of nightmare scenario if you think about it hard enough.
So please, someone tell me why they want to side with the Arishok beyond, “he has a cool voice” or “he’s a badass.” Yeah, he might be. That doesn’t make him a good person or his values anything close to what we might call &ldqu
