Yeah Meredith was definitely much more radical than the standard templar even before she became corrupted by the relic. I mean, mages were being made tranquil at the drop of a hat! poor things. It seems like the only way to get a hold of that situation before it got out of hand would have been to depose of Meredith much earlier in the story and replace her with another knight-commander. Of course, then we wouldn't have had Dragon Age 2 I guess!

Anders did change a lot from Awakening and it was pretty sad to see. I mean, he was just a normal apostate in Awakening and then became a Grey Warden and pretty much avoided his fate there. But then he ran away from the wardens and took Justice into himself and then fucked up Justice pretty bad lol. I actually don't remember Justice being particularly extreme in Awakening but I'm honestly not sure how much I used him, because I ended up respeccing my warden warrior into a tank because otherwise I didn't have one!

Glad to hear that you can indeed avoid the disaster with the Dalish... I'll have to give it a try next time!