6. Anders

The only returning companion from Dragon Age: Origins is inarguably the most impactful in Dragon Age 2. Anders is a far cry from the wisecracking apostate we met in the Awakening expansion—he’s now a tortured radical after being possessed by the spirit of Justice. He becomes a healer in the city of Kirkwall, growing more and more fanatical as the game goes on and he watches injustice unfold against the mages. Eventually, whether by his own fanaticism or the spirit’s influence, Anders blows up the Kirkwall Chantry, sparking a mage rebellion that changes the Dragon Age universe forever.

All of that makes him a compelling but divisive character. People love Anders for his tragic angst as much as others hate him for being a terrorist. In most versions of his story, I fall into the former camp. But Anders’ rivalry path, in which you can convince him to turn on and murder the mages he just sought to free, remains one of the most baffling and cowardly decisions BioWare has ever made with the Dragon Age franchise. It technically works within the game’s friendship and rivalry system, in which you can have a friendly or adversarial relationship with your party that can challenge their worldview, but it’s also such an irresponsible moment that is, sadly, par for the course with how Dragon Age tends to “both sides” issues of oppression. As the face of this conflict in Dragon Age, Anders inevitably has to bear the baggage of a series that has never wanted to take a side and failed to make a case for both arguments. And it undermines him and the story of Dragon Age 2 in the end.