I have far too many feelings about Justice, most of which are a bit too base and primitive and fangirlish for me to voice coherently at all. I don’t think I’m anywhere near as eloquent as some of the wonderful writers in this fandom, but I wanted to attempt at least to talk about how important Justice is as a character. I missed Justice Week because I’m far too much of a coward to just blurt out my opinions, but then this gif set appeared and, well… I had to write. I apologise for the lengthy ramble on your dash, feel free to scroll right past if you so choose. It is of course my personal opinion and you are all entitled to tell me I’m utterly wrong and ridiculous.
Justice is, to my mind, one of the most fascinating characters in the Dragon Age universe and I have been hopelessly in love with him since the moment my Commander Tabris encountered him in the Black Marsh. It doesn’t help that I have the world’s most irrational obsession with Adam Leadbeater’s voice, but the story of Justice as told in Awakening both stole and broke my heart. He was a character with such amazing depth and conflict, with the potential to teach us so much about the world of magic and mages and spirits and veils and blackened cities with silent streets. Then to find him relegated to what was essentially a plot device in DA2 was possibly the most earth shattering moment for me in the entirety of the game. It’s probably rather telling of the depths of my obsession if I was most upset, upon finishing the game, at never being able to have a proper conversation with him, if we ignore that brief two sentence interlude in Night Terrors and again briefly in Dissent.
In essence, I was disappointed that a character with so much potential was all but discarded that way. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the idea of the merger with Anders, and seeing just what that merger had wrought upon my other favourite Awakenings character was amazing and heartbreaking. But it was a two way street- Anders admits as much in Act I after the Chantry ambush with Karl, saying that his emotions tainted his friend and the fervour of Justice became a driving force within him too. We never saw how Justice struggled with this though, and for all that Anders claims they are one, they are clearly not. Justice can wrest control from him, not the sign of an integrated parasitic spirit lodged deep within his psyche. And Justice is the more powerful of the duo in the Fade by far.
So what happened to our reluctant Warden, to the spirit who agonised about feeling envy for Kristoff and Aura’s love? Why didn’t we see his emotional journey alongside Anders’?
The answer is that we did. It’s just hard to find.
What saddens me the most is the way he is constantly judged by a large portion of the fandom, and accused of all kinds of malicious and even manipulative actions. Justice is responsible for the Chantry Jenga. Justice is responsible for Anders not being fun anymore. Justice doesn’t like Hawke. Justice wanted Anders to die after the Chantry incident so he could possess his body unfettered. These, and so many more like them, just make me want to curl up on the couch and sob while I replay Awakening.
It’s so easy for people to forget that they are judging a character of non-human origins by human standards. In Awakening, we see a creature flummoxed by basic human interactions; he has no experience with emotions, or even with physical contact, and he struggles so valiantly with that. He wants to be stronger, he wants to understand, so that he can continue to stand as a beacon of what his own makeup tells him is fundamentally right. He is a concept, not a person. He is an ideal, a value, a standard. He comes from a world of black and white, right and wrong, and yet we expect him to integrate himself into our world of grey (unintentional Warden joke FTW) without considering how hard it would be for him. It always makes me think of some of the excellent stories from Ursula Le Guin, my two favourite references for this situation being The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest (and if you truly want to understand how difficult it is to associate with people and concepts completely alien and completely familiar to you, I highly recommend them). Justice is not human. He is not even remotely human. And yet he’s thrust into the human world, first in a dead body and all the strange and uncomfortable experiences associated with that; then he must endure having a living host, no longer the master of his own destiny or even his own actions.
Imagine that. Imagine having your entire existence controlled by another. The words you want to say never come out the way you would have said them. The actions you take are never wholly yours. Imagine how much that would hurt for a creature of absolutes, a spirit accustomed to instant, affirmative action. Just when Justice thought he’d worked out this world of maybes and greys while confined to Kristoff’s body, suddenly he must deal with the cacophony of doubt and stress and suspicion and indecision that is Anders on a good day. Imagine never experiencing emotions before in your life and suddenly being exposed to that. It would be like a blind person suddenly being given sight- you have no way of warning them, or of describing to them what they’re about to experience, because they have no common point of reference with you.
I think the most telling line in DA2 when we are considering Justice is on that first night together, when Anders hesitates in Hawke’s doorway and says ‘Justice does not approve of my obsession with you.’ It’s not a lie- Justice doesn’t approve. But it is for reasons completely beyond what most people assume.
Consider his interactions with Aura in Awakening. Justice very quickly becomes fascinated with this mortal woman, and the love she and Kristoff shared. He admits as much to the Warden if you get his approval rating high enough. When he hesitantly approaches Aura in the Amaranthine Chantry, he immediately asks the Warden if he has done the right thing; how telling, that a spirit of Justice is confused about wrong and right when it comes to emotions and plays of the heart. Later, in the follow up conversation back at Vigil’s Keep, he admits to feeling envy and instantly berates himself for it, declaring it the realm of demons.
Fast forward a few years to Kirkwall, and Justice is exposed to more than envy. As Anders grows more and more infatuated with Hawke, Justice must endure love and lust and obsession and loneliness and desire… and he still has no way to process these feelings without assuming them to be the territory of demons. So he makes his disapproval known- he never talks to Hawke, and he makes sure that Anders is very much aware of how much these feelings upset him. Even if there is evidence to the contrary.
I could go on, but I think I’ve made a fairly significant point. And what started as a defence of my favourite character has turned into somewhat of an essay and my dinner has gone cold while I wrote. But I’ll just leave you with a little image of my favourite sappy romance scene.
If Justice is as against the relationship with Hawke as Anders suggests, can anyone offer me an explanation as to what is happening to Anders hand as he touches Hawke’s face? Maybe, just maybe, Justice is as awed and curious of love now in Kirkwall as he was once upon a time in Amaranthine. Maybe, for just a moment, he wants to know what that feels like.
In summary, there is more to Justice than we see at first glance. There is more to his relationship with Anders than we see at first, and there is much more to his relationship with Hawke than we see.
At the end of Act III, when we are given the choice to keep, let go or kill, there is only one decision I can make. I’m not just keeping Anders alive with my choice.
I’m choosing Justice as well.
Reblogging because Justice (and Janders) needs more love, always.
And that hand in the gif? And that last sentence? Yes. All of that.
Antagonist!Justice seems common in fandom but, yanno. I just can’t see it. Not only based on Justice’s characterisation in Awakening — he’s the hands-down highlight of the DA:A companions, IMO — but even from what few small glimpses we get of him in DA2. He allegedly “doesn’t approve” of Anders’ obsession with Hawke… but nonetheless apparently lets it run on for the better part of a decade. It’s not like Anders hasn’t changed his behaviour based on Justice’s will before (q.v. the drinking), so if Justice really didn’t approve of Anders pursuing a relationship… maybe it’s just me, but I think he’d be a little more vocal about it. (Which, of course, he actually is if you engage in a rivalmance.)
Maybe I’m just biased but, well. I’m a fangirl for Justice, what can I say?
