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Long POSITIVE rant/analysis about Veilgards plot regarding Solas for me and anyone else bummed out by everyone saying the writing is bad!

SPOILERS

All that I wanted going into this game was to get to know solas as the dread wolf and get my big solavellan moment. The game delivered. This game is very much, by design, the dread wolf’s where inquisition is solas’. In inquisition he is hiding and allowed to be himself as a result, by the end of it you don't change his mind, but you make it so he no longer wants to tear down the veil, not on a personal level. Solas is sensitive, kind and wise. The dread wolf is cut throat, pragmatic and prideful. To save him you need to tap into the person from inquisition, not the god from veilgard.

The thing about solas’ mission is that on a pragmatic level he is right. Rip off the bandaid of these short mortal lives and generate a utopia of immortals. That's why pragmatism doesn’t save him. He needs to accept that on an emotional level, as a person, he doesn’t want to destroy this world, he doesn’t want to fight anymore, and he can never truly make his sacrifices mean something, he can never make any of it worth it because it will never feel worth it to him. He needs to choose to stop as a person not a god of rebellion or spirit of wisdom. Because no matter how much he didnt want to be a god, he acted like one and he can never be at peace while doing so. And no matter how much he wishes he was still a spirit, he’s not. Veilgard at the end of the day was about accepting that you will make choices you will regret, there will be uncomfortable consequences to your actions and there won't always be meaning in those consequences. You can choose to punish yourself forever (solas) or accept the uncomfortable truth that you can't punish yourself into peace and forgive yourself (rook).

The reason why one of you companions must die is so that you cannot be placed above solas. This is also why you must pick minrathous or treviso. You must walk a path like his, fight the war he fought and make the sacrifices he made. You cannot defeat solas or change him on the pretense of being better than him, of not being willing to make sacrifices like him, You MUST make sacrifices, You must put people who follow you into situations where you know they might die and when, not if, they do, you must live with the regret that comes with it.

Solas knew that eventually someone would die under your command and he waited for that moment because you would be faced with the same kind of regret as him and then you would be able to take his place. You don't get to act like you are better than him because you never abandoned anyone, you don't get to act like you are better than him because you never ordered someone to their likely demise. Because you did. You cant get solas to stop by making the claim that he is wrong and you are right, because he isn't. You’re the same. Rook is a foil to solas

The dinanshiral for him is continuing to walk the path that only makes him hate himself more. that he doesn’t feel good about or want to do. He wants to stop but he can no longer see the line between his pride and wisdom. He wants to keep walking it because he can't let go of the fight and accept that this is what all his sacrifices will amount to. He knows he will only hate himself more at the end of the journey but he thinks he deserves to feel all that guilt and shame if it means bringing about the utopia he imagines. He sees the regret and pain of making this ideal world as a burden only he can bear and therefore has a responsibility to take on. He fails if he doesn’t he is selfish if he doesn’t because the sacrifices hes made and the elves of now (in his eyes deluded by idealism) deserve the world he is trying to create

It’s not that solas can't accept he did bad things. He’s great at that actually. He can't accept that he did bad things and those things might never matter. He took risks and lost and there is no reward that can make him feel like it was worth it, but he's trying to make it feel worth it by continuing his plans. He cant accept that he acted like a god, created this deeply flawed world, and cant fix it. He sees himself as the only one who can save his people and cant accept the reality that he failed at preserving one thing he always wanted to preserve. After millennia of fighting and sacrificing for it, how does he just stop? Just because he wants to? That’s selfish. He can take the pain, he deserves it even. So why not keep going? He has to do it, someone else might get it wrong (haha).

Rook is freed because they listen to the people who love them, accept forgiveness from those they hurt, and the reality of their guilt. But choose not to hate themselves anyways.

You show him it's okay to stop. He's not failing. You make him accept his pain and his mistake. You mythal and the inquisitor give him the permission to end, to be forgiven so he can finally give himself the release from that ancient duty. The acceptance of the grim reality he wrought as real and permanent and he doesn’t need to honor those sacrifices because doing so will still never change the reality of how they make him feel. He finally gets to live as a hurt and flawed man, not a savior with the weight of the world on his shoulders. I think thats a beautiful and perfect ending for him, and the whole plot of veilgard is to build rook up into this dichotomy with him.

Solas pretty much says he made you into him, but he didn’t anticipate you’d be able to forgive yourself. Because forgiveness is something he cant imagine granting himself until the end, when he is met with genuine compassion and understanding by those he hurt.

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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 measured my 1:4 scale Solas statue. It's around 46cm tall, maybe 46.5cm if you consider that he's posed mid walk, so not necessarily standing up straight all the way. Which puts his height at 184cm-186cm, so roughly 6' to 6'1".

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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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Finished datv!! So Inquisitor fanart commences

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Reposting this bc he belongs on this blog and not my other one, and also I want an excuse to yap about my oc.

So this is Silas, and is entire personality is that he sucks so bad. He's one of the middle Vanserra children, and his entire goal in life is to be a disgrace to the name Vanserra. He's succeeding, by the way. He's got that lazy playboy persona going on, along with a plethora of addiction issues. He actually kinda cultivates this all to seem as unthreatening to his brothers and father as possible. He Really does not want to be taken seriously by anyone for any reason. His coping mechanisms are super healthy, why do you ask?

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Love you bestie! I’ll always be your Neris art dealer🫶🏼

“When you get tired of the animal, come find me. I’ll show you how a future High Lord carved pumpkins.” - a totally real and accurate quote from ACOSF

Eternally grateful for my bestie and Neris dealer @autumns-high-lady for yet another gorgeous Nesta and Eris piece. Y’all, I saw that I had gotten a discord message from her last night that included a .png, and RAN SO FAST TO SEE IT!

If you’re interested, below was my headcanon from back during @nerisweek about Nesta and Eris carving pumpkins!

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“Nes, oh Nes. Let down your hair.”

Nesta Archeron and Eris Vanserra as Rapunzel and the Prince. My Halloween piece! Hope you enjoy!

Reference: “Romeo and Juliet on the balcony” by Julius Kronberg (1886)

Speedpaint below the cut!!

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Leave it to Quinlar to break my Nessian heart

Hunt squared his shoulders, utterly unshakable. Bryce's throat tightened to see it - to know even before he spoke that he had her back. "It's tough for me to accept, especially when they wrecked Lunathion this spring, but if Bryce trusts them, I trust them. Besides, we're out of options."

It kills me that Bryce knew before Hunt even spoke that he had her back. It makes me wonder if Nesta thought Cassian would have her back only to find out that he didn't? Or if she already knew at this point that he would never have her back?

And then we have Hunt, who does not fully support Bryce's decision and thinks it's a tad reckless, but trusts her anyways. Cassian proved that he neither trusted Nesta, nor believed in her.

And then to make matters worse, we have this:

Hunt fell into step beside Bryce, putting a hand on her shoulder as if to offer his support, but she could have sworn that even her mate was disappointed in her.

Hunt is disappointed in Bryce, but he still comforts her and supports her. Cassian let Rhysand threaten Nesta with punishment, let Rhysand directly challenge her, watched his mate cower before Rhysand and never once offered her any support or comfort. And worse, Cassian was the most furious with her. She spent all night thinking she would be executed at dawn, and I guarantee you Cassian offered her no comfort. He ripped her to shreds so badly that she raised that wall of steel in her mind to protect herself from him.

Cassian is a spineless asshole, and SJM does not like her males to be spineless assholes, so I do think we'll get a Cassian redemption. Maybe Hunt will re-enter Prythian and hand over his copy of the Mated Male Memo so Cassian can read up on the bare minimum of being a mated male: 1. Always have your mate's back, even if you don't agree with her. 2. Always trust your mate, even if what she's doing seems reckless, it will always turn out okay in the end. 3. Always support and comfort your mate,  even if you don't fully agree with her decisions.

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“Nesta was just as nasty to Cassian”

Have you considered that they barely treated her kindly from the beginning? 😭 Feyre went and planted the seed in their heads that she’s some horrible witch, and they met Nesta having this biased perspective. I actually do proudly support Nesta being “mean” because it was provoked every single time. The above quote is just an excuse for nesta antis and so called Nesta stan’s to put her down and raise Cassian up. Get over it.

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And when the firelings pulled up and started burning all the faebane stores? That was hot.

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every now and then I think about Rhysand and Cassian joining forces after hating each other simply so they can gang up and beat on a kid who was fresh out of childhood torture. and then SJM decided that's the pinnacle of brotherhood? siblings dynamics in this book series are so fucking weird

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Can we talk about the significance of Nesta being only the third female to ever wield Gwydion? The other two being Queen Theia and Bryce Quinlan.

Nesta now wields the last Made weapon, plus she's the only person in 15,000 years who has been able to Make more weapons.

Nesta now wields Ataraxia (plus she has her other Made sword and dagger), the three objects of the Dread Trove in Prythian, and Gwydion. She controls all magical items except Narben.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Nesta and Bryce control the Dread Trove, which were created by the Asteri and stolen by Queen Theia to be used in their defeat in Prythian. I don't think that it's a coincidence that Nesta and Bryce teamed up to defeat the Asteri once and for all by using the items of the Dread Trove, as well as Gwydion and Truth-Teller.

I think it's obvious at this point that Nesta is Starborn. Does that make her a descendant of Queen Theia on Silene's side? Does Nesta have the power to awaken the Dusk Court and bring it back to its former glory, as well as bring back the pegasi to the land?

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@valkyrieappreciationweek

@freyjas-musings and I are SO EXCITED that we were able to commission this beautiful artwork!

Our headcanon is that Bryce drops by to leave a fully charged phone for Nesta; and Nesta puts it to good use by taking selfies of her and her chosen sisters…it’s their favorite hobby….posing and taking pics ❤️

Artist: @cherryandsisters

Link to Instagram post

Characters belong to Sarah J Maas

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ACOSF was meant to be a healing journey for Nesta, but at the end she said that she wouldn't fall back into that pit of depression if she had Cassian at her side, her friends at her back, and the HoW.

Perhaps the future did not need to be so planned - she could just take it one day at a time. As long as she had Cassian at her side, her friends with her, she could do it. Face it. They wouldn't let her fall back into that pit. Cassian would never let her fall again.

But it didn't matter. Nesta could hardly wait for it - the ceremony, the...whatever awaited her beyond it. None of it frightened her. None of it left her with that pit of despair. Not with Cassian at her side, her friends at her back, the House of Wind...

HOFAS ripped all that away. Cassian was most certainly not at her side. He didn't agree with her decision, he did absolutely nothing to stick up for her, he didn't defend her when Rhysand threatened her, he did nothing to protect her from punishment or possible execution, he did nothing when she cowered before Rhysand. And to make matters worse, he was the most furious with her. He probably ripped her to shreds, probably said some incredibly hurtful things to his own mate. Every other SJM mated couple is a team...except Nessian. Cassian left Nesta all alone. Every other mated couple sticks up for their mate (even if they don't agree with their decisions), at least in public. And they most certainly don't let someone threaten their mate.

I have no doubt that Gwyn and Emerie had Nesta's back, even if they didn't agree with her decision, but Az (Nesta's other bestie) did not. He didn't agree with her, he did nothing to stick up for her, he allowed Rhysand to threaten her, he did nothing to protect Nesta from punishment or possible execution, and he did nothing when Nesta cowered before Rhysand. Nesta and Az have developed a beautiful friendship, but he most certainly did not have her back.

The HoW probably ceased to be Nesta's home when Rhysand entered without her permission and threatened her in it, when she cowered before him in it.

We know Nesta's story isn't over yet, and she's the only character to have been given a clear objective: take Gwydion and find out why the eight-pointed star was tattooed on her. Considering in HOFAS she seemed so lost and hurt and broken, maybe she'll take this journey on her own and maybe Cass, Az, Gwyn, and Emerie will team up to find her.

When it comes to Nessian, I see two directions forward: Nesta rejects the mating bond or Cassian gets a redemption arc. I really see no other alternative.