Dragon Age 2: two years later!

So who else is still playing? What are you up to w/r/t your Hawkes? I'd love to hear other ideas.

Oh, and kindly please keep any references or mentions of Mass Effect: Andromeda out of this thread; I have not played it yet, but do plan to sometime soon, and would prefer to remain relatively unspoiled...

I still play, mostly as radical pro-mage, only once finished at the Templar side for Carver and because this was a nice Hawke who wanted save the city, and wanted to avoid the fight with his Templar brother, and wanted to compliance to everyone.
I have one more diplo Hawke, who sided with the mages, his brother died at the Deep Roads (At first time I din't know, that Anders need if I want a living Carver after the Deep Roads – and he said: he hates the Deep Roads. I don't like to play with spoilers, so I played blindly.)
These were my first Hawkes, years ago.

My rest Hawkes are sarcastic-sarcastic/aggressive mixed with some diplo.

My newest Hawke (still in progress) is a agressive/sarcastic one, this is pretty fun. He's a blood mage, planned rival with everyone except Anders, but I changed my mind: Fenris just seems too much admire him... so a weird-nice friendship started. Merrill will be interesting: I don't know yet, friendship or rivalry.

Other concepts for mixed personality Hawkes (from an other thread):
I like this idea, Hawke's personality depends on the mixed blue/purple/red archetypes.
blue/red/purple: You can start as blue, naive/helpful Hawke, who later more and more angry and impatient, so slowly be red, after when realize, that whatever s/he does, things get only be worse (Liandra dies etc.), become sarcastic, disappointed.
red/blue/purple: Impatient hot-head young wo/man, later as become more patient, helpful, but disappoints, and become sarcastic with some red.
purple-blue/purple/purple-red: charming, good-hearted guy. Helpful, but takes everything easy, later start to tired from the people, became more sarcastic than charming, and less helpful, at end lost his/her charm and optimism, become a disappointed, angry, sarcastic bastard.

I still play it. I tried playing as male Hawke once, but I had to stop because of the voice. I deleted that character and started a new one with femHawke

Why he sent the Mages in the Circle? What was his reason to sent them to this very dangerous and cruel Circle, led by an extremely cruel, law breaker Knight Commander? He's an apostate... why don't HE was who went into the Circle?
That Meredith is a law breaker and dangerous, seemed at the first moment when Hawke arrived in Kirkwall, in fact before yet: Hawke told to his Mother, that so dangerous to go in Kirkwalll. After that we met wit Karl, that was clear. So: what was his reason to send his fellows to the Circle?

Well, with Feynriel he thought the Circle was the best place to help him, turns out it wasn't but Hawke didn't know that at the time.

He sent Grace and Co. to the Circle because they attacked Hawke's party first and Grace wanted to kill Ser Thrask, who Hawke knew was a good man and he didn't deserve to die. So off to the tower for those mages. This was early in the game when Hawke didn't know how far Meredith's madness/cruelty had spread. He got more into mage freedom as the game progressed.

Catilina my guess is it's because Meredith is still an unknown at that point in that game, and the events in act 1 could be taken as just a corrupt element in the Templar order. But as the game progresses you see it goes all the way to the top and there is a problem with the whole system itself, not just a few corrupt Templars. We are shown there are really some honorable Templars as well, but the problem is unfortunately bigger than them.

No doubt, I agree. But she had plausible deniability, just like Elthina, who also had a rogue element of Chantry fanatics acting on her behalf. The game uses this theme a lot. Even Hawke can claim it in the end game when it comes time to decide Anders' fate. 

1000+ hours! Nice, this more than mine! 
I like The last straw. The whole weird story's worthy end. This is a depressing story if you watch it from Kirkwall's viewpoint, but if you see that as a rebel mage, this is a new beginning (Bethany, Anders) – true, a bloody new beginning.
In my Templar-end PT was very depressing, yes. He betrayed his fellows for his idiot brother... and for nothing. I felt the Viscount title as 30 pieces of silver... That Hawke needed to leave Kirkwall, because the Templars didn't trust him, and they betrayed him (as I heard – and this would be the one logical explanation, why Viscount Hawke disappeared), is a very good fate to Viscount Hawke, I think.

I don't hate Meredith, but Meredith's sister is the victim of the Chantry's Circle system, just as Meredith. When she says, that "she tried to sympathy…", she seems very manipulative, or lunatic – that face! So hypocrite! (The Mages caused the Blight, she says? And: she tries to protect them their own CURSE? – It should have been replaced her a long time ago, she's not suitable, or rather she should not have been appointed. But I think, the Chantry was happy with such a paranoid Templar.)
Okay, you can say, that Meredith was mentally ill, so, doesn't responsible for what she did, but then Elthina was...

And we know, what happens in the Circle, there are traces: Thrask says, that the people feel sympathy toward the mages (sympathy, not fear?), Elthina says, that she doesn't like Meredith's methods... Meredith knew, that Otto Alrik's idiot (Tranquil solution? Really?), but she did not kick it out him. And even Cullen does not deny, that Meredith cruel, only says, that he agrees with her (Cullen also have PTSD, his mind's not clear). Meredith was so cruel, that the Kirkwall nobles wanted to rebel against her. Nobles, against the Templars for the Mages?

Perhaps we didn't saw that how many new Tranquil exists at Gallows, but I think: Karl good enough to know, that Anders doesn't have delusions. Karl was an experienced, mage, and he succeeds his Harrowing. He shouldn't be Tranquil according to the Chantry's own law. Meredith lawbreaker, and incredibly cruel. If she tranquilized Karl, she tranquilized others too.
Anders always questioned himself, because he knew, that the mages are dangerous, and saw, what the did. But he knew, that the system is corrupt and unsustainable, and everyone deserves freedom. After Karl's death, he started to cooperate with the Mage Underground, then he was informed. Hawke also: at the Docks, a woman gives quests, to whom niece Tranquilized at Gallows. So Anders was biased, but he clearly saw what was happening. Everything, what he said, obtained testimony, if not at the moment, then later.

The Chantry collected dangerous people in one place, in these places, they stressed them, and wonder, that they became even more dangerous...
And the blood mages? Thrask's daughter was the victim of the system, just as Meredith's sister, Evelina, Huon and Orsino.
This is not gray: the Circle-system is clearly evil in this form, there's no excuse. The imprisonment of innocent people is evil. There's no matter, that they are "dangerous". No need to go to Kirkwall for this information, that the Circles are inhuman: everyone knows, who have Circle Mage origin despite that the Calenhad Tower was one of the best Circles in Southern Thedas.

I know about Kirkwall, in fact not only Corypeus was the reason of the crazyness: Kirkwall was a Tevinter city, where for some reasons a few Magister wanted to open the gate to demons, and weakened the Veil. Kirkwall was a Hellmouth... so: inherently unsuitable for a Circle. But the Chantry just saw a pretty good, strong and cheap prison building. So: installed the largest circle in the zone. Suitable or not, nobody cared about it.

And again: a GAMER, before the monitor, can be "objective", but Hawke's an apostate, or have an apostate sister (who perhaps a prisoner at Gallows, under the rule of a madwoman). Their whole life was about to escape and hiding. I can't see, how HAWKE can to collaborate with the Templars. We saw: s/he wasn't neutral at the start, s/he shows not too much sympathy toward the Templars: s/he was hostile at Vesley. And even Bethany was very hostile toward the Templars and the Circle in the Act1. Without Stockholm syndrome, how anyone could support a system, what hunted him/her or one of his/her family members. An apostate doesn't have Stockholm syndrome. (True, the IRL history knows such a cases from nazism and communism, how people can collaborate with an unacceptable system – I speak about the victims, not the fanatic believers. People wrote a report on their family member, friends, AND themselves! Very interesting and sad fact... but the brainwashing works.) SO: probably this is my limit, I can't imagine the reason, why Hawke could work with Templars. I thought about how I could justify it, but only Templar Carver was, who gave me an acceptable reason, and only at the end...

(Marethari was a benevolent, noble idiot. She jeopardized her clan for Merrill, not for the demons. This wasn't Merrill's fault. )

This is a pretty good start. And this is a good place for it. (Here's my warrior's story – the pictures gone...)