Who actually sides with Meredith?

I've stated my case many times.

There was ample evidence of huge mage problem sin and around Kirkwall.  Starkhaven mage rebellion, blood mages and abominations up the ying yang, the mage leader in Orsino that at the least was standing in the way of the templars doing their job and at worst as we saw was a blood mage who consorted with  a serial killing mage.  If anything the Chantry  leader caused her own doom by not letting Meredith do her job and thus the whole Anders thing.

Meredith was a crazed (after the red lyrium thing) emotionally scared individual of that there is no doubt.  There is equally no doubt that the mage situation in kirkwall was a powder keg, in large part caused by many mages themselves.  Meredith was doing her job.

I believe I've been part of these type of discussions with you a number of times in the past, you always down play any and all misbehavior by the mages and up play and misdeeds real or perceived by the templars/chantry.  There will be no resolution on the topic.  I'm totally comfortable with how i stand on the whole mage templar thing because I try and view it as much through the eyes of the common man as from one side or the other.

First time, I sided with the Templars. I didn't exactly MEAN to, but poor Hawke was trying to protect her city and keep the peace. When Anders kersploded that (just when she'd finally almost talked everyone down from crazytown; thanks Anders) and her hand was forced, she went with trying to keep the status quo. In theory, that felt safest for the people of Kirkwall as a whole. There's more citizens of Kirkwall than just the angry lyrium snorting armored guys and the angry lyrium snorting fireball shooters. Helped that Sebastian forced the issue there.

I've only ever had Mage Bethany and Warden Carver.

As a mage siding mage with a Templar Carver, do you have to kill Carver? Because if that's the only way it can play out, then Templar Carver will happen exactly once for me. I love Carver more than Bethany, and I've given her two shots to make me feel even half the sibling love I've felt for Carver. Maybe the problem is I haven't played DLCs with her...

Anyway, I RPed a mage Hawke that made an emotional decision in a very emotional moment that she horribly regretted forever. ( I love you Atonement Hawke!)

I also intend to RP siding with Meredith as a barely tolerant of mages, less than them type Hawke. He will not bother bringing Anders or Merril anywhere, just Bethany at the start, and then she will become a Warden. Then Anders blows up the Chantry, it's the straw that broke the camels back. Kirkwall has a pest problem; it's mages.

As a person of Earth, any chance Meredith had of actually siding with her was blown out the window when she didn't lock Anders up and have him hanged publicly for his deed....and instead, ignored him, so she could go follow her personal vendetta of annulling the Circle. The Circle had done a lot, in a way, but it didn't do THAT.

Warden Carver is better. I shall forever and always make Carver a warden... he's nothing but a warden in my mind..  And I really love Carver, I got a friendship character with him once and it was so worth it. Chill Carver.. 

I like a happy Carver, lol. 

War in the streets between a group of people who make fire with their minds and have an unfortunate tendency to set loose demons when they're scared and a bunch of fanatics is worse than a dictatorship. Especially since Thedas is pretty much autocratic to begin with.

This is why Hawke don't need to care about Carver's opinion   (Because Carver seems not sure what's his opinion...)

Exactly. Meredith's inept and heavy-handed handling of  every situation put before her guarantees more strife down the line. She needs to go, and if she and some of most her hardcore supporters die during the chaos, well, all the better for Kirkwall. The mage rising is chance for a political reset that is desperately needed. 

My Hawkes never agreed to being Champion. They just started calling him/her that. Nothing was made official, no key to the city was given, no payment sent his/her way. Therefore, no "responsibility" towards anything but what s/he thought was right. Morally, or selfishly. 

Edit Add: My Hawke wanted to protect their family. That was a failure. If I could have, I would have just simply left Kirkwall entirely to explode. I owed nothing to that city, I just landed there 10 years ago.

This argument is ludicrous. The Templars' heavy-handed tactics and Meredith's dictatorial rule of the city are indefensible, and in nearly every case of magical 'corruption' we see, the mages were only pushed that far by Templar abuse. The Templars have all the power, they rule the city, and so, the situation in Kirkwall is their fault. Waiting around or helping the jackboots slaughter innocent people and further cement Meredith's paranoid despotism is wrong, full stop, and only leaves the people of Kirkwall and their future in the hands of a madwoman.

Phoray: I feel that is a big flaw in DA2. Whether you want to be or not you are the Champion. No matter what you choose Hawke is still forced into that role for Act 3.

Catalina: I fully agree that Meredith is a danger to Kirkwall but the way I worded my post is important. I feel the mages are the larger immediate threat. I always feel that if the end had not happened the way it did that Meredith and much of the leadership of the Templars would still have to be dealt with later, but at that very moment the mages were the larger threat.

lordofwar: The Circle actively fomented rebellion at every turn so that had a hand in making things worse. The problems in Kirkwall came from both sides ramping things up to an intolerable level. As I have said before, this is how I see it but go ahead and disparage me just because I have different thoughts. Heaven forbid anyone think differently.

thesupremedarkone: That is something that was never brought into the game but if that had been the choice then I don't know. Honestly, that would make for an interesting thing. The fact that Anders is a mage overrules everything else but what if it had been a Ferelden refugee who wasn't a mage? If that was the issue then more than likely Hawke would be straight up fighting the Templars anyway instead of being able to choose.