Anders or Fenris Romance 1st playthrough?

You're basically me I loved those three romances in that exact same orden. I just love fluffy romances. I went with Anders.

Well, reporting back in. Almost done with Act 1. I have to say, I really like Fenris' gravelly voice. But I most likely will go with Anders. I'm finding it more difficult to be pro mage, as I am biased because of Cullen and DAI, but I'm mostly calling it as I see it.

Now the question becomes - Should I do a rivalmance or a friendmance with Anders? I've heard from a friend that has played this before that rivalmance Anders is like the 'real' him and the friendmance Anders is not really him but something else controlling him.

Which one is better? Remember, I like happy endings...

Beind super pro mage freedom with Anders may equate to a happy ending. That would be a friendmance. If you were truly pro freedom for mages, than this route would be the happiest.

The way I've seen the difference between the two Anders best described:

Friend Anders is more one with Justice. He is not fighting himself. He is calm and knows what he must do- confidence. Sureness.

Rival Anders seems kind of miserable. He seems at war with Justice; Hawke is telling him to be the opposite of what Justice is telling him what to be. He's emotionally chewed up between the two people that have the biggest affect on his life. Like a devil and an angel on his shoulder, except which is the devil and which is the angel?

I would say that phoray hit the nail on the head. Friendmance is more supportive of him and trying to help him keep control of himself.

As it is, it's easier to friend Anders by helping mages -- with him in your party. (Generally I consider this to be the happier path with him.)

What is your current reputation level with Anders?

That was the original intent and purpose of the Circle, but in Dragon Age people in Thedas fear mages, and they aren't schools. They are mandatory and children are taken away from families to live there, and they are not allowed to choose or leave without Templar supervision...among other things. I would say it is kind of like how biotics are seen in ME, except that they haven't really been integrated into normal society yet.

Southern Thedas and the Chantry fear mages because the ancient mage ruled Tevinter Imperium had slavery, and their prophet, Andraste, fought a slave rebellion against the empire. She taught magic should not rule over man, but Chantry takes this literally to mean mages should not rule period, and they cannot own property or have political power. They also believe a group of ancient mages, Tevinter Magisters, caused the Maker to turn away from them when they tried to break into the Golden City and make themselves gods. Corypheus was one of those original Magisters who supposedly did this.

It would be fine, if the Circles would be schools and libraries, and a places, where mages could be together. But the Circles are rather prisons, and the Templars can do any cruelty against the mages without consequences.

Woah, reading through this thread makes me want to do a DA trilogy run again! I don't have DA2 on Origin (I originally played on PS3), so I'll have to look into it.

I will say this, my first play through was as a pro-Mage Mage in a friendmance with Anders. I too went in completely blind, it really was worth it in the end imo.