Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
'Fan favourite' characters are often promoted by a fandom supressing other characters that have their own share of fans, though. How many more people would speak up in favour of liking the likes of Varis, Nabriales or Gaius if they weren't immediately accused of supporting 'fascism', 'bigotry' or 'genocide' the moment they did so pretty much anywhere that the game is discussed?
But, by definition, supporting the Garleans is literally supporting bigotry and genocide (fascism has a lot of different definitions, so it's somewhat debatable), at least within the fictional setting of The Source. Most Garleans were bigoted and genocidal, whether or not they had "sympathetic reasons" for doing it. Most Garleans looked down on every other race (the tolerant ones, like Gabranth and Garus are considered rare exceptions) and they definitely wanted to commit at least cultural genocide (they wanted to impose Garlean rule, atheism, and military doctrine on every single race) and Varis outright states he wants to cause a Rejoining to eliminate the diverse races into one superior race.

Supporting the Garleans doesn't necessarily make you a fascist-supporter IRL, but that is definitely what your character would be in-game.