Did Elthina do the right thing by staying neutral?

Going to get in before Catilina explodes all over the thread (I tease).

No, she did not do the right thing. Her reason for doing so was predicated on the idea that the issue was solely about mage freedom. It was widely acknowledged that Kirkwall's circle was more extreme than most, with not only Meredith exerting ever tighter control over the mages, widespread abuse of the mages that was far beyond the typical templar maintenance of order, but also her attempted influence over Kirkwall politics.

I don't say that Elthina should have "sided" with the mages, since I don't think that was likely to happen. However, I think there should have been serious discussions with the grand clerics about replacing Meredith with a knight-commander who wasn't so volatile and had more control over their subordinates.

Even giving Meredith the benefit of the doubt that she didn't know about the abuses, it doesn't matter. As knight-commander of Kirkwall's circle, it was her duty to know, so she was ultimately responsible for stopping it. That she either didn't know or didn't care means that she was incompetent, ineffectual, indifferent, or all of the above, any one of which would demand her replacement.

Her actions were the only thing keeping both sides in check (hence why the warmongering terrorist abomination formerly known as Anders killed her) and stopping the city from falling into chaos and countless people dying, so yes she did the right thing.

It’s not like she could have done more anyway, since things like removing Templars is not up to her.

There was no "both sides". The Circle is a property of the Chantry, and Elthina is the head of the Chantry in Kirkwall. The procurator of the Divine. She's responsible for everything about the Circle. The Chantry wanted this position, and she serves the Chantry. This is her duty. 

And she knew, Meredith abuses her power. She didn't want to do anything against her – so she supported her. She served Meredith with her "neutrality" (Hawke also can accuse her with that, like Anders said to Sebastian). But she's spineless to openly stay behind Meredith. 

And she's very good at this game... you also believe, she's neutral...

So if both groups are part of a larger group, there aren’t both sides? You realize how stupid that sounds right?

Except she didn’t support her. She stood in Meredith’s way countless times like for example not approving Right of Annulment. Anders was more on Meredith’s side than Elthina was since at least both of them wanted the Kirkwall Circle wiped out.

But I know that you can’t comprehend things like facts, and it’s clear this thread was just a troll one judging from the OP’s response so I’m done. It’s not like you’ll ever produce an argument Roth anything anyway.

Yes, if you can't see, she supported Meredith, she's very good at this game, as I said.
Or... according to your logic, she supported the open rebellion... with her passivity, she incites the suppressed wrath of the mages ... choose!

And it's not my fault if you don't understand.

But I agree, Iddy loves to throw shit in the ventilator and just watching...

She supported everyone trying to stop countless people from dying. Something your boytoy Anders couldn't care less about.

I would not say that Elthina could have stayed neutral at all, given she's beholden to chantry dogma and hierarchy.
On the other hand, the local Grand Cleric does, at least in theory, outrank the Templar commander and Meredith was promoted with Elthina's support as far as I recall, so calling for a replacement wasn't completely out of question in that regard. If Meredith would have drawn her red sword, called Elthina a blood mage and tried to chop her head off, I guess the already doubting people like Cullen would have called Meredith nuts.
I'm also not entirely sure if this is due to localisation issues, but it struck me as that Elthina knew about Petrice's shenanigans for some time before Petrice had Seamus murdered, and she did not act, even as Petrice rallyed groups of Elthina's community/"flock" into attacking the Qunari (and Hawke), getting them killed. That leads me to question if Elthina's "waiting the Maker's time" nonsense is even somewhat... malicious instead of plain ignorance. Yes, I called her reasoning nonsense. Did she missed the lesson saying that the Maker has abandoned "his" creations?

Agreed she should have taken actoin and worked wit hboth Orsino and Meredit hto rty to solve the situation befoer after all I think that's the main reason wh yAnders felt he had to tak ethe action he did. I think if he fel tthere was a chance for peacr and Elthina was going to do something about it he wouldn't have felt the need to blow the chantry up. I think Anders was onl ytaking action becaus enobody else was prepared to do so.

The warmongering terroeist abomination didn't want peace. It tells us as much. That's why it decided to kill her and over a hundred others to cause Meredith to kill hundreds more to spark a war that would kill countless people. 

Two things.

1. "You're either for us or against us" and any of its variations are the attitude of extremists. Extremists are bad.

2. If "but they didn't do anything to improve things" ever truly becomes a valid reason for killing people, I will be one very busy dude.

Yeah she could ahe could also have spoken to Cullen and addressed her concerns to him about Meredith maybe even asked him to investigate her a tleast to eep her under conrtol until the seekers arrived. At th eend of the day Cullen I think was still nervous and hurting after wha thappened in Ferelden but I think he would still have followed Elthina's orders had she issued them to him. Admittedly he was Meredith's second and he may have been nervous about going againswt her but I think Cullen would have at least carried an investigation out. Whether he'sd hav efound anything given how paranoid Meredith was at the time is another question.