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this might be like... an extremely hot take but. what would solas have done if only mythal and rook had been there to convince him to stop? if the inquisitor wasn't there, what would he have done after mythal released him from her service?

i'm wondering if he would've actually just.. offed himself.

his body language when mythal is talking to him is very revealing--he's literally trying to give her the wolf's fang. he never wanted it, he made it for her. she did terrible things with it, and it was used to kill her. is he trying to give it away, or offering it to her to kill him as penance? he is offering the person who gave him his body to take it away again, to end his suffering as an elf.

it's very telling that he turns to a befriended inquisitor and says that 'because of you, i can see the way forward' (paraphrasing). he says, directly to a high approval/romanced inquisitor: 'i will go and seek atonement.' he has been forgiven by the inquisitor, but he still wants to atone. that is something he never would've had the opportunity to do if they had not been there to remind him of who he truly is. he would be free of his duty to mythal, but he would still owe the world a huge debt for all things he did to it in her name, and to those he betrayed in the inquisition. the weight of that guilt, after finally confronting it after so much of it had accumulated in denial, would've have crushed him.

then there is the din'anshiral, the path of death. presumably, this means his own death. he planned to stay alive after the veil fell to rebuild the world mythal wanted, but he also seems to infer several times that he knows his death lies at the end of the path he's walking and is heading there willingly. that is the literal meaning of the din'anshiral. a romanced inquisitor tells him that she is walking the din'anshiral with him, as she has done for a decade. she is reminding him that he is not alone in his suffering--and does so again when she chooses to follow him into the black city. this is so telling of how well she understands him--she knows what he needs to hear, she knows what his deepest fear is (dying alone). and she works with rook and morrigan/mythal to bring all the necessary parts together, because she knows from experience that just trying to soothe his pain is not enough. she needs to address the cause, or the cycle will just continue.

all of this, to me, is not just about trying to get him to stop doing an awful thing. it's about talking someone away from the ledge of their own destruction. all the clues and signs solas left for the inquisition to follow him was his way of.. well, asking for help, basically. varric was right that he didn't want to do what he was doing, but he underestimated how much he was suffering and how determined he was to avoid confronting his mistakes. the inquisitor is careful not to make the same mistake, and explains his personality in a way that shows they don't underestimate the power pride has over him.

ofc, if he had taken his own life, the veil would've fallen anyway--but i daresay that after losing the only thing that tied him to his purpose (his duty to mythal), he wouldn't have cared that much. i've been at that point myself enough times to know that being called selfish or whatever isn't enough to make you want to keep going. the apathy of a suicidal person is a powerful thing. it's only through his friendship/romance with the inquisitor that he's able to hold on, to keep going. and i think this is a nice touch, because it circles back to the dialogue the inquisitor has with solas and the banter solas had with varric in dai about 'dusting yourself off and trying again'. (paraphrasing). varric is essentially there in spirit, with the inquisitor, to offset solas's grim and fatalistic worldview. solas is essentially just... catastrophically depressed and like a depressed person, can only see things that reinforce the negative outlook he already has. even in dai, he has a tendency to collapse himself into that darkness and not see a way to continue other than through terrible acts. he needs someone else to show him a better alternative--which is what the inquisitor does and is why they are so integral to this scene.

i don't think varric would've wanted it any other way, honestly, and i think the inquisitor knows that. it's why it basically works with a low approval inquisitor too, because even if they don't care for solas, they would want to see varric's wish for his friend come to fruition.

essentially the final scene of datv is about holding an intervention for solas lmao. and like an intervention, you can't do it with just one person.

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no because actually i don’t think we talk enough about how solas gets on his knees in the trespasser finale with a romanced lavellan. his name literally means pride. he EMBODIES pride. but his name also literally means “to stand tall”. HIS NAME MEANS TO STAND TALL. god of rebellion. and he is on his knees cradling her face and telling her he’s sorry. i have to go walk into traffic

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i'm gonna need whoever wrote,

"you've felt the power of that mind. his love could burn against me like a bonfire. he seemed so kind, and wise, and sad, and looked at me as if i somehow mattered more than anything around us."

to CHILLLLLL jesus fucking christ brother

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I still see some people upset about the Mythal/Solas/Lavellan content in veilguard, so let me point out something that healed my little solavellan heart:

Solas doesn’t just create murals, he does frescos. The very nature of a fresco is meant to be permanent and last the test of time. He destroyed every fresco memory of Mythal. They are even described as things he wants to forget.

Solas also has an entire room covered wall to wall in inquisition frescos, left completely untouched and in a position that they are in his direct eyesight when he sits at the harpsichord. Not to mention he has a painting of the inquisitor’s throne and helmet in his meditation room.

Do with that what you will.

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I've been thinking about something. Lavellan is the only woman in Solas's life who knows his contemplative, serene, and solitary-melancholic side. That part of him that outwardly yearns for peace and love, isn’t it? A woman who never manipulated him but simply listened (or didn’t) to his advice and sought his help. She didn’t know about his past, and he could present himself to her as he wished. It was a big opportunity for Solas to remember something forgotten about himself. Of course, he loves Lavellan, and the phrase about a "rare spirit" takes on a deeper meaning. Lavellan believes in the best in him, while everyone else around him sees only a brilliant strategist for achieving their ends. And this plays so well in contrast to his relationship with Mythal, who saw him as a means to an end, no doubt. She led him down the path of war. She nudged him, approved, and let him make choices leading, at the very least, to genocide.

Solas’s phrase, one of his regrets, when he asks Mythal to leave the Evanuris. Could it be that Solas admits he has doubts about what he’s doing and is ready to turn back? But then Mythal hooks him with the word love and he melts again. If she approves, then everything’s okay.

And here he is, left without his power, without his people, in a world where no one knows him, and where he knows nothing. And he meets a woman who is, for many, a symbol of faith, a deity. She begins to build her own order, faith around her strengthens, the power of the Inquisition grows, and I think Solas might have felt a sense of déjà vu in many ways here. However, this woman doesn’t choose the path of "achieving her goals through death." Perhaps it wasn’t only Lavellan herself who served as an example for Solas that there are other ways to overthrow a false god obsessed with the blight (hello corypheus, hello evanuris), but also the entire Inquisition, with all its advisors, companions, and the final victory, showed him that goals can be achieved differently. Maybe in moments of silence, he wondered how things might have turned out if Mythal had been like Lavellan. Maybe they wouldn’t have touched the Titans at all, and nothing would’ve happened. Or if instead of Mythal, it had always been Lavellan? I like this version better. Solas would have had an entirely different path. I don’t know, just an idea my head is such a mess.

And I can't shake the thought that Mythal wanted to remain the supreme deity, and that the true god of betrayal and deceit is her. This fits the logic of the updated lore good gods = bad gods. And if that were true, how cunning one would have to be to deceive wisdom itself.

Thoughts?

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I've seen it said that Rook is a better romance option for Solas because unlike Lavellan, they know who he is from the get go. So let me make something clear:

Rook does not know Solas better than Lavellan does. They know his history, his crimes, even his regrets, but what he shows when they talk to him is very much a mask.

Fen'harel is not who Solas is. As dishonest as he was about his past during his time with the Inquisition, he also came the closest to being himself ever since he took a body.

In sappy terms, he hid his deeds and plans from Lavellan, but not his heart. With Rook, it's the opposite.

Who we see in Veilguard is not some kind of "Solas unmasked", it's Solas who has returned to wearing the mask he was allowed to shed for a little while and hide the fact he'd ever worn it.

The raggedy apostate who plays mental chess with Bull, trolls Sera, beats Blackwall at diamondback, who nerds out about magic with Dorian and approves of helping every single hinterlands peasant you encounter, that's the real Solas. Keeping his past a secret is what allowed him to stop being what his service to Mythal and his people made him into, even if for just a little while.

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𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑎 𝑤𝑜𝑙𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑘?

There is something so lovely and heartbreaking seeing how Solas left the lighthouse without knowing he wouldn't be coming back. The duet by the piano which i think is a ref to the Lost Elf song lore (don't even get me started on the frescoes he Recreated from Skyhold in the same room), the inquisition book by said piano, and the lone dinner plate... It's so... lonely.

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𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑙 𝑗𝑎𝑏𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑠

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Will never be normal about this theme of how war and subjugation destroys you, crushes your spirit and not only dehumanizes others in your eyes but yourself in your own eyes.

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This location was just stunning

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something so amazing about solas is that he is very good at predicting his enemies and his allies moves. he’s always thinking 5 steps ahead, even varric says this. (long post incoming!)

but when it comes to lavellan, he could never predict her. when he first meets her, solas thinks she’s just another dalish elf that is unwilling to listen to his advice. nope turns out she can be willing and not only that but asks him about what he knows so she can better understand the fade/spirits/ancient elves.

and then the haven dream kiss! she’s the one who initiates and solas is once again thrown off guard because he never expected that. and then he just gives into it with so much passion and fade tongue.

in all new, faded for her, solas is once again surprised lavellan agrees with his plan to free his friend, the spirit of wisdom. because nobody in the entire inquisition (except cole) would be down for this?? like all the world knows about spirits is that they don’t ever come in contact with people unless very rarely. they’re an enigma, something to be feared even because they can become demons. but nah lavellan is like ‘yep sounds good let’s go save your friend!’

and solas after this tries to rationalize lavellan’s bizarre behavior as something the anchor changed about her. because he has always known how to read people. he can’t understand her. he thinks her ‘spirit’ has changed due to magic’s influence.

but no, lavellan surprises once again by pointing out that her choices are her own or that if the anchor did change her, wouldn’t she notice? like no wonder solas is so fucking down bad. lavellan subverts everything he thought about the modern people, not just exclusively elves. she’s constantly showing him new points of view and challenging his whole mission. and so the cracks start to form.

“you show a wisdom i haven’t seen since…*pause* my deepest journeys into the ancient memories of the fade.”

“your mind, your morals, your… *pause* spirit.”

“it would be kinder in the long run. but losing you would- *cuts himself off*”

and then if lavellan drinks from the well, this conversation and the previous quest itself (what pride had wrought) just cracks solas wide open (even if she didn’t drink). he’s visibly upset because he’s afraid the well will change lavellan and he knows first hand what it’s like to do everything for someone who made the wrong choices! so solas asks what she would do with the power of the well and he’s ONCE AGAIN thrown off guard by her answer. i really like the “help the world move forward” option because it almost aligns with solas’s plan but it doesn’t.

s: “you would risk everything you have in the hope the future is better? what if it isn’t? what if you wake up to find the future you shaped is worse than what it was?”

l: “i’ll take a breath, see where things went wrong, and then try again.”

s: “just like that?”

l: “if we don’t keep trying, we’ll never get it right.”

you’d think this would be an affirmation that solas’s plan is right, but it’s not. lavellan is wanting to fix things now and shape a better future with the well’s power. it’s eerily similar, but once again a path solas didn’t consider. she surprises once more. using the wisdom from the well to help, rather than command. sound familiar? this conversation just solidifies solas’s want. to be himself and to be solas, not fen’harel, with lavellan.

so he takes her to crestwood. somewhere intimate and quiet just for the two of them. a place where the veil is thinnest because it’s easy for spirits to cross and be comfortable. solas is going to tell lavellan the truth. he’s going to abandon his plan. but then solas gets in his own head. he fights with the possibility of her rejecting him because why wouldn’t she? he’s the very god in her culture that ruined everything. what if lavellan sees him for the monster history painted him? and then he realizes why he even wanted to tear down the veil. to avenge his oldest friend and right the wrongs he did to the elves. and it all comes crashing down in not even a second.

“then what i must tell you… *pause* …the truth.”

solas backpedals so fucking hard. the reality of everything just hits him. so he quickly redirects to the vallaslin topic because it’s familiar as he looks down at lavellan’s face and sees the markings of the very gods he locked away.

remove the vallaslin or not solas still loves her no matter what. and the sad option is still my favorite here because once again solas is slipping.

s: “you have a rare and marvelous spirit. in another world-“

l: “why not this one?”

and then at the end of veilguard, lavellan does one more thing solas doesn’t expect. after hurting her, betraying her, leaving her alone without any answers, killing one of her friends, and almost succeeding in his plan, she forgives him. lavellan abandons thedas and everything she knew to be with him. to the very end, she is subverting his tragic expectations.

“this journey is not yours alone. we make it together, always.”

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard | ▶ dev. Bioware

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Ar lath ma, vhenan 🐺

Something something archdemon blood smeared across our lips like lipstick stains idk

Solas and Layla Lavellan

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I need everyone who didn’t read the books to know that Felassan (who’s name means slow arrow in elven)

This guy

Who was in several of solas’ memories and has notes around the lighthouse and crossroads

Was in the masked empire. He was a friend and mentor of Brialas and helped her with her efforts to use her relationship with Celene to improve the lives of elves in Orlais (and tried to let her down gently when it became apparent that was not enough).

He refuses to let Briala tell him the code for the eluvian network so that he cannot give it on to Solas. Refusing to tell him would not be enough to keep it from him. When he meets with Solas he tries to convince him that modern elves should be given a chance. Solas murders him, his ally of thousands of years, for this.

In inquisition, Cole says this:

This is what the Betrayal of Felassan represents. Solas murdered his trusted friend and ally because he though modern elves were people whose lives had value.

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What would you have had me say, that I was the great adversary in your people’s mythology?

I would have had you trust me!

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Reblog if you’re an unapologetic Solas Defender (Bonus if in Solavellan Hell, but not exclusive)

He’s just neat. Love his cheeky little ass.