friend-of-red-jenny:

Look, if you think that Cullen is an irredeemable tool because he was once a dedicated Templar, then that’s your prerogative.  I’m not here to tell anyone how to feel about fictional characters.

BUT.

In my opinion?  The fact that he came out of DA2 defending mages was a goddamn miracle, and speaks to the quality of his character.

Let’s look at his arc:

• Cullen is a rookie kid.  He’s sympathetic enough towards mages that he can potentially form a crush on one.  He knows that this is inappropriate, given the power imbalance at work, and so doesn’t follow up on it.  He wants to do the right thing.
• Cullen is tortured by blood mages for weeks or possibly months.  Meanwhile, all of his friends are brutally murdered in front of him.
• Cullen has a breakdown and lashes out at mages.
• Does this case Cullen’s commanding officers to send him off to a nice, quiet monastery for some recuperation time?  Nope.  Apparently not.  Instead they ship Cullen off to Kirkwall, aka the blood mage capital of Thedas.
• In Kirkwall, Meredith takes a shine to Cullen because of his ongoing  freakout, and promotes him to the post of Knight Captain at a very young age — likely bypassing several intermediate ranks. 
• Cullen spends the next six years being regularly exposed to demons and blood magic.  Some of there experiences are probably triggering.
• At the same time, Cullen is surrounded by people who would have encouraged and rewarded his worst authoritarian tendencies.
• Somehow, in spite of this, he forms doubts.  He comes to (re)recognize the humanity in mages and decides to defend them, turning against the mentor who had faith in him when he was a broken young man.

I think that’s kind of amazing.