Solas And Varric Inaudible Argument Dialogue...

Harellan

i think about that "they hated that blond freak so much they nuked his entire profession" post constantly because just double checking. we all agree thats why they changed mythal's virtue from justice/vengeance to benevolence/retribution right

I drew Fen'Harel from Dragon Age: Inquisition. I referenced a mural from the game, specifically the scene where the Elves are freed from their Vallaslin.

Eepy' Wisdom

I’m a bit annoyed at myself for still reading Hot Takes[tm] on DA Veilguard but apparently, I’m not quite done being angry and disappointed and heartbroken about the way they lacklustre finished a series that mattered so damn much to me that I considered getting tattoos of it.

I put so much love into my OCs and that universe, the relationships to other characters and with the problems of the world. And it feels like they spit on everything they built and made us players connect with. And for what? So they could wipe the slate clean.

Ferelden, Orlais, Free Marches, the Dales, everything we visited and freed and brought together? Destroyed by the Blight. Offscreen.

Every character that mattered to us? Assume they’re dead because Blight. Or if they turn up in DATV, the connections to your OC isn’t mentioned, so you can ignore it. Oh, the immortal god? Conveniently forgot all his goals and disappeared into the now forever closed-off realm of dreams and magic.

Every problem that has been discussed and been a huge deal in earlier games, from the Blight to the treatment of mages to religion, possession and slavery? Don’t worry about it, it no longer exists. Or isn’t a problem anymore because, uh, don’t worry about it.

Oh the complex villains we had? Weren’t complex after all, there’s a Mysterious Big Bad that has directed Everything from the shadows. Invisible, unnoticeable even by the most powerful beings alive. No decision was ever a decision. Or complex. Even Flemeth wasn’t truly acting on her own accord. Solas probably neither but again, don’t worry about it! He’s gone for good anyway, so nothing matters.

GODS I’m so angry and disappointed. I wish I never played that fucking game.

Wolf in mage’s clothing — Well, that took long. But, I made it. I hope you like it as much as I do ~

So my biggest problem with Solas x Mythal isn’t that I’m “jealous” of their relationship or anything like that. In fact, I really like the concept of her being a toxic and abusive relationship he has to let go of to be able to move forward and find true happiness with the inquisitor.

My problem is that it cheapens Solas’s motivations and seems to make his only reasoning for tearing down the veil be loyalty to Mythal. It also, to me, downplays the significance of the inquisitor’s influence on him. This was disappointing because in Inquisition, we were introduced to Solas as this very wise, idealistic, and thoughtful person who cared deeply for his causes. Justice for Mythal was one of his motivations, but I never interpreted it as his main motivation. I thought his main motivation was always to make a better world and fix his mistakes.

I truly believe that he’s not wrong about some things. The veil IS a wound inflicted on this world. It was made by him; it’s not the world’s natural state. It’s falling apart and broken. It creates a class divide between mages and non-mages, and by separating spirits from the physical realm, it makes them more susceptible to corruption into demons and makes people scared of them. There are tons of instances through DAO - DAI where weak spots in the veil lead to mass demon possessions and death. It made a world where elves die instead of live forever, and where they either live in slums or as shadows of their former glory in the woods. But DATV didn’t address ANY of this. It painted Solas to be this lovesick pup whose motivation was purely emotion-based, and it didn’t help that this game didn’t go into Thedas’s socio-political climate so a new player wouldn’t understand that the world of Thedas is seriously messed up, and that Solas’s plan would resolve a lot of the issues in need of fixing.

The problem is, and always has been, the cost. Solas restoring the natural order of the world would cost thousands of lives, and destroy the current world and all the good it has to offer. In order to abandon this plan, Solas needed to not only be released from Mythal’s service, but to let go of the world of the past. He needed to acknowledge that the world he loved is gone, that a new world that he also loves has taken its place, and that it deserves a chance to live. It’s sort of implied that he goes through this shift in belief in Trespasser, but it’s not enough at the time, and that’s okay.

Anyway, with all this in mind, this is how I’m choosing to interpret Solas’s entire redemption arc. Solas did have his reasons to tear down the veil that he passionately believed in, but through his interactions with the inquisitor and rook, the only reason that truly remained was that he didn't want to fail Mythal. They changed his perspective on the world, and showed him that it’s a world worth preserving, even if it’s different. He didn’t want to do what he had to do, and by the end of DAI and/or Veilguard, the only thing keeping him tied to his course was duty to Mythal. So she has to free him to allow him to move on.

However. If Mythal had released him from his service at the beginning of inquisition, because Solas hadn’t gained any affection for the new world, it wouldn’t have mattered. He would’ve been like "cool i'm doing this anyway because I want to.” Changing his course required two things: having his heart changed by the inquisitor, and Mythal allowing him to move on. Unfortunately I feel like the game is a little sloppy with this and makes it feel like freedom from Mythal is all that matters, but my dear friends, she is not. It was a team effort all around, and Solas’s redemption would not have been possible without our beloved inquisitor. 💜

in case you want confirmation on whether Solas starts sobbing after Lavellan says “There is no fate but the love we share” 🥹

It’s weird to grow up in a family where you know you’re loved but you don’t feel loved. And then later in adulthood you understand how almost impossible it seems to cross that distance and let yourself experience closeness, how otherworldly love feels now and how love feels unbearable at times. You flinch when someone tries to wholeheartedly love you. And over and over you see so clearly how you cannot be loved unless it's from afar and love is mixed with that familiar sensation of distance and coldness.

At my most bitter, it genuinely feels like they just did not Know how to write the elves in a way that wouldn't invite discourse (i.e, they didn't know how to write their struggle compassionately. or they didn't want to.) So when they realized that they were getting highly criticized for increasingly treating them like disposable punching bags, they decided to just write them as little as possible. Which feels like the height of incompetency to me, but that's where we're at.

Like how (at least it feels to me) they took out the Chantry from the story entirely when they got criticized for (in Inquisition) constantly giving the Chantry a pass for their genuinely evil history. They'd rather not write it at all than criticize it.

I want to believe that there were writers on staff who genuinely cared about these things, but they either left in development or lost influence on the final product to people who only cared about getting better optics.

let me share with you this post i reblogged a few days ago that has stayed with me ever since