God, sometimes I just sit back, still in awe of how we don't know how much of Dragon Age 2 is canonically true. From the prologue on, it is established that Varric is an unreliable narrator and DA:I confirms that Varric CONTINUED to lie to Cassandra through the whole story specifically to protect both Hawke and himself. So, like, every bit of DA2 story that isn't confirmed in Inquisition or in other material may or may not have happened. Or maybe it happened in an entirely different way. No one besides Varric (and those who were there) knows!
And THEN if you think about any scenes where Varric wasn't there, those are all probably second hand via Hawke, so they're also colored by Hawke's perspective/information they chose to give to or withhold from Varric. And it is just! Such! Good! Storytelling! And leaves so much room for interpretation/headcanon/fanfic! Listen, DA2 will always be my fav Dragon Age game.