#'Solas-- bright and sad-- observes and accepts. Spirit self-- seeing the soul. Solas-- but somehow sorrows'

[icharchivist]

the artbook saying they planned on having Cole in da4 to give a compassionate voice wanting to help Solas navigate through his pain and supporting him in front of Rook and the companions, only for the final product to literally just be "bashing Solas hours because he's such a loser for always being alone and he's to blame for literally everything (rightfully so or not)" just fills me with an intense sorrow i will never recover from.

[fenharel]

hurting because solas never wanted a body and never wanted to fight "he never wanted a body but she asked him to come", "he wants to give wisdom not orders" but he did it anyway. "i pulled you from the fade you loved and sent you into war. i used your wisdom as a weapon… and it broke you." inquisition forced him to slow down and just be himself. "solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. spirit self, seeing the soul, solas, but somehow sorrows." lavellan nourished that. seeked out his wisdom. his purpose in the world. never twisted him, loving him as he was. she craddled the part of himself he wants to be in her palms. the part that was beaten and bruised and abused a millennia ago.

[nerd-elf]

“Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.”

- Cole, the spirit of Compassion, about Solas

[emmahdraws]

Let’s just say that BG3 has gotten me back into dragon age which has gotten me back into art. I’ve been working on this particular piece on and off for a few months, trying to perfect my technique in procreate! Enjoy <3

Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts

spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.

[heliomanteia]

Solas: Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.

Yeah thank you Cole once again for the perfect summary of Solas as a person

[daitranscripts]

Cole Conversation: Warm Approval

Tell Me How You Think

Cole Masterpost

PC: Can you explain how your mind works?

Cole: Yes.

1 - Dialogue options:

General: Explain the helping process. [2]

General: You think about our friends. [3]

General: What do you see in me? [4]

General: It seems a sad way to be. [4]

General: Goodbye. [5]

1 - General: Explain the helping process. PC: Walk me through the way you help someone. Cole: I start by listening. I hear hurt, feel it fretting. Some you can solve by giving something. Food, a blanket, sleep. Some are intangible, terrible tangles that catch on a crack. Fixed, festering, and the person makes a pearl of pain. I shake it loose. No pearl, no pain. They can hope, they can heal. [back to 1]

2 - General: You think about our friends. PC: Sometimes you say things that relate to other members of the Inquisition. Cole: They remember me. Their eyes stick, some more. They want me to be.

Cole made more human Cole: Varric lied. His bow broke. It was a trick trigger, a trap, but it helped like the truth. Solas isn’t afraid of me. He sees spirits and understands. But he’s sad underneath. [back to 1]

Cole made more spirit Cole: Varric, a stone reaching for brightness, spinning stories of color he can’t see. Calling me “kid,” calming. Solas, bright and sad, reminding me how to fly free, forgive, forgiven, forget. [back to 1]

Cole’s personal quest not completed Cole: Varric is quiet inside. He pulls me more to here. Makes me a person. Calls me “kid.” A friend. Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows. [back to 1]

3 - General: What do you see in me? PC: What do you sense when you focus on me? Cole: You’re too bright. Like counting birds against the sun. The mark makes you more. But past it…

Cole (mage PC): You reach across, mindful, meaning. You pull it through to this side, make it real here. Cole (Qunari PC): Old blood, deeper, passion pounding pulsing, unchecked. Raw rage, but only an option. Cole (dwarf PC): The stone, still there, silent and reaching up for the blood that walks. No dreams with the cord cut. You sell it. Cole (Dalish PC): Pulled, blood that is not blood, a tiny trace of time. Lips struggling to shape language your parents lived. Cole (human PC): War and weariness, blood and battle. Life learning to lead, clash, kill.

Cole: And past that, the weight of all on you. All the hopes you carry, fears you fight. You are theirs. It must be very hard. I hope I help. [back to 1]

4 - General: It seems a sad way to be. PC: It must be sad, feeling everyone’s pain all the time. Cole: Why? PC: Isn’t it? Cole: No. I help. I find wounds and heal them. I salve, soothe, save. I see pain and make it better. How could I not be happy? [back to 1]

5 - General: Goodbye. PC: I’ll talk to you later.

[mogwaei]

“Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.”

“Voice ringing with fullness from both worlds, guiding me to the shining places. He calls himself Pride.“

[corseque]

Why do we assume it was Mythal who asked him to take a body?What about the she from 'I know that mistake well enough to carve the angles of her face from memory'? Burning her off his face implies to me a sort of violence, a rebellious act of freeing himself. Surely if she'd freed him, Mythal would have removed the vallaslin. Why would he love Mythal as he does if she enslaved him and he was forced to escape her service?

I mean, I think the “she” in both of those stories could be the same “she.” It sounds like his relationship to her was extremely complicated.

It’s canon that he was her attendant, so if he was a spirit who left the Fade to at someone’s behest, it would have been her, right?

Burning her off his face implies to me a sort of violence, a rebellious act of freeing himself. Well, he is the god of rebellion, so that tracks. And the thing he cares about more than anything else is individual freedom. So it would actually make sense that his beliefs (that are so strong) may have been galvanized by experiencing slavery himself.

Would he love Mythal as he does if she enslaved him? That’s a good question. But like... Abelas loves Mythal, while being “bound” by her will and wearing her vallaslin. Her priests were “bound.” Solas, when talking about Mythal, has an air of almost religious veneration at times. It sounds like he was perhaps exalted to godhood from a position of servitude out of her recognition of his individual merit, so you could see where that would give Solas a feeling of pride, and almost gratitude to her. So it could be a complicated feeling. She was “the best of them” -- the best of a group of mad power-hungry slavemasters who went down into the Deep Roads to war with the dwarves. 

"Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!"

So, Solas does sound torn about her.

“She was the mother, protective and fierce.”

“These statues are old. Better shape than anything I've seen on the surface. Many of them are for Mythal, though. And Fen'Harel. Not in a spot of honor, but guarding, attending.

Protector and All-Mother, why are you honored here, so far from the light of the sun? And why was the Dread Wolf at your side?”

But at the same time, Solas sounds absolutely full of dread while talking about her sometimes -- 

“Did the ancient elves believe all their gods so terrifying?” “Yes, I believe they did.”

"It was empty, long abandoned, but the world feared that she might return.”

“You gave yourself into the service of an ancient elven god! You are bound to one of them now! You are Mythal's creature now. Everything you do, whether you know it or not, will be for her.”

and also how he utterly refuses to even consider drinking from the well himself. “No. Do not ask me again.”

“One sees the hunter, one flees from it, one hunts it in turn, one outwits them all.”

“Bright and brilliant, he wanders the ways, walking unwaking, searching for wisdom…”

“He comes to me as though the Fade were just another wooded path to walk without a care in search of wisdom.”

“In his own way, he knew wisdom, as no man or spirit had before.”

“Voice ringing with fullness from both worlds, guiding me to the shining places. He calls himself Pride.”

“Bare-faced but free, frolicking fighting, fierce. He wants to give wisdom, not orders.”

“Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.”

“He did not want a body, but she asked him to come. It left a scar when he burned her off his face.”

And then from Tevinter Nights, this very specific description of Solas, which is the only time he’s physically described, so Weekes could zoom in our attention on a certain detail and not assume we see it ourselves:

So, Solas as a character feels really torn about her, in a way that’s really hard to pin down using only obscure Cole comments and the 2 second scene that they share. She is his oldest friend, and they worked together and helped each other, but there are really vague mentions of them betraying or outwitting each other. She sounds like she could feel betrayed by him as well. They do apologize to EACH OTHER in their shared scene. At this point, it’s all speculation. IDK what else it could possibly be that wouldn’t be just random. He was serving her as her attendant, that’s canon. If he ever had vallaslin, it was hers.

[whyymira]

"Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows."

[daobssesed]

Lo que Cole piensa de los demás

Cassandra:

“Stomach full of mantras, she burns like a beacon, Faith a flame to bring succor for a Seeker.”

Me pregunto si se refiere a la lucha interna entre su fe y el hecho de haber iniciado la inquisición. 

Varric: 

“A stone reaching for brightness, spinning stories of colours he can’t see.”

Bueno, es escritor, no?

Cullen: 

“He is quiet, behind the noise. The little bottle makes him shake, but he tests the chains.”

Lol, hablando de adictos. 

Josephine: 

“Ships launch on changing winds. Dizzy sometimes, like the top of the stairs, but sometimes like dancing.”

Leliana:

“The Left Hand remembers a knife slipped to her in the darkness, and wonders why the flower blooms.”

Solas: 

“Bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.”

Bueno, se sabe que Cole supo todo el tiempo quien era Solas realmente. 

Vivienne: 

“A breath-caught smile from the Enchanter as the candle lights. The walls are safe; she will never be hungry again.”

Dorian: 

“Bright, like the fish that kill you if you eat them. Can’t hate you for hiding if you burn so brilliantly.”

Iron Bull:

“The, a joke. He laughs to himself, imagining herds of cattle in fields of iron, but now he worries it fits.”

Es Iron Bull una cosa o una persona? 

Blackwall: 

“An old name burns inside armour that shouldn’t fit, lit by faces of the children he couldn’t save.”

Sera: 

“She hurts, but helping hurts more. She sees the strings that pull me, eyes like raisins in a stale cookie.”

Supongo que referente a Sera hay algunas teorías interesantes.... 

[dalishious]

What do you think Cole's comments on leliana mean? As well as that, Sera's "the strings that pull me"

(x) Okay, I know you specifically pointed out Leli and Sera, but I’m just going to comment on them all, because I love Cole’s cryptic comments. And I’m going to do Sera’s last because it’s part of a larger theory I have...

Cassandra: “Stomach full of mantras, she burns like a beacon, Faith a flame to bring succor for a Seeker.”

(Fun fact I originally read beacon as bacon.)“Stomach full of butterflies” is a phrase to mean uneasiness, except Cole replaces butterflies with mantras. Succor means "assistance and support in times of hardship and distress." I think this is about Cassandra looking for strength in her faith, but struggling to do so when everyone’s telling her she’s a heretic for starting the Inquisition. But she wants to believe she’s right.

Varric: “A stone reaching for brightness, spinning stories of colours he can’t see.”

I think this one is pretty transparent, as it’s been made clear a number of times that Varric uses his writing as escapism. Shit keeps happening to him that he can’t control, but he can control the worlds he writes. In all the doom and gloom, Varric “reaches for brightness” through stories that aren’t real, or “colours he can’t see” in a real world of grey.

Cullen: “He is quiet, behind the noise. The little bottle makes him shake, but he tests the chains.”

This is very obviously about Cullen battling his lyrium addiction. He has been chained to his lyrium, and it causes him to shake, but he keeps pulling away from it. “The noise” is most likely referring to “the song” that Lyrium sings.

Josephine: “Ships launch on changing winds. Dizzy sometimes, like the top of the stairs, but sometimes like dancing.”

(This one wasn’t included in the gif set, but it’s one of my favourites.)Ships, as in the Montilyet family. Changing winds, as in The Game. To launch a ship on changing winds is a difficult task, because it’ll affect your course. “Dizzy sometimes, like the top of the stairs,” is referring to the story Josephine shares with you, of her brief time as a Bard where she killed a man. Basically, Josephine is both exhausted and exhilarated from her job. 

Leliana: “The Left Hand remembers a knife slipped to her in the darkness, and wonders why the flower blooms.”

The knife slipped to her in the darkness is, I think, referring to the events of the Leliana’s Song DLC. Where she first met Divine Justinia (or at that time, Dorothea.) Justinia saved her by freeing her from the cell in which she was kept and tortured in after being betrayed by Marjolaine. The flower blooming is about the rose bush story she tells the warden from DA:O, and how it had filled her with faith in the Maker, that there is always beauty in darkness. (Coincidentally I’m pretty sure this is the same rose Alistair picks for a romanced Warden, lol.) Except with Justinia gone, she’s no longer sure about that. 

Solas: “Bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.”

I think this is about Solas observing and realizing this is a world full of people and they are real people, which goes against everything he originally thought, and makes his ultimate goals a whole lot more condemning. And so he’s got a some inner conflict going on between guilt/sorrow and that pride. “Solas, (pride) but somehow sorrows.” We know in Trespasser what wins.

Vivienne: “A breath-caught smile from the Enchanter as the candle lights. The walls are safe; she will never be hungry again.”

The "breath-caught smile” is that thing people do when they sigh in relief.I think this is about Vivienne finding safety and security in the court and in her powerless within it, and in a less metaphorical level, with the Duke. “Hungry” does not necessarily mean food. It could be referring to love, respect, freedom, everything that she worked so hard to get, and finally got. 

Dorian: “Bright, like the fish that kill you if you eat them. Can't hate you for hiding if you burn so brilliantly.”

I think the fish referred to is the puffer fish. They’re poisonous, but on top of that, they’ll extend their spikes to seem bigger and badder then that actually are, before anyone gets the chance to get close. Which also falls in line with the “Can’t hate you for hiding if you burn so brilliantly.” It’s like in the party banter he has with Vivienne: “It's rather amusing, Dorian. The way you sneer at "southerners," pretending to be a shark from a land of sharks. But you're not a shark and never will be, darling. They knew it, just as you do. Such snapping for a fish without teeth.” Dorian is a puffer fish confirmed.

Iron Bull: “The, a joke. He laughs to himself, imagining herds of cattle in fields of iron, but now he worries it fits.”

This is most definitely about Bull questioning the Qun, and his place (or rather a lack thereof) within it. When you ask him about his name, he’ll tell you the “The” is to make him sound like a thing rather than a person. Which was a joke, but now he’s worried it’s true. He's afraid to trust his own autonomy. 

Blackwall: “An old name burns inside armour that shouldn't fit, lit by faces of the children he couldn't save.”

This is, of course, a clue into the Plot Twist reveal that Blackwall isn’t really Blackwall. He is haunted by the children he killed, and guilty over wearing another man’s armour, another man’s life, so to speak. 

Sera: “She hurts, but helping hurts more. She sees the strings that pull me, eyes like raisins in a stale cookie.”

Okay, so, first off, the “She hurts, but helping hurts more” is most likely about Sera struggling with her internalized racism/self-esteem issues, from being raised by a pretty shitty human lady. The stale cookie also plays into this; such as the story she’ll tell you in her rooftop cookie scene, about how the lady who raised her told her the baker hated elves in order to keep her away, which made Sera hate herself. “But helping hurts more” is how Cole tries to help her in some party banter, but unintentionally only makes things worse.

Now, as far as the “She sees the strings that pull me” piece... Bare with me: I think Sera has untapped magic. 

Seeing “the strings” that pull Cole, as in seeing the Fade.

Just like Solas, she can sense where the veil is thin. (And has some amusing dialogue with it. “The Veil is bored here.” “The Veil smells like arse here.” “The Veil is veil-y here.”

And there are a number of examples in party banter between her and Solas that’s pretty interesting:

Sera: (shivers) Weird.Solas: Sera? What are you feeling?Sera: Ugh, here we go. It’s nothing, it just feels like I've seen this. Exactly this. It happens.Solas: Not to everyone.(Cutting this one off here cause he then proceeds to be a real asshole to her.)

Solas: What color is the sky when you look at it?Sera: You know, blue mostly. Except for the Breachy bits.Solas: And when you looked past the Breach? As perhaps you were drawn to do?Sera: Greenish? Then clear a long ways, and kind of...felt like falling. Ugh! Makes my head hurt. You make my head hurt.Solas: We are not so far apart, you and I.Sera: We will be.

And there’s also this one, which while it is in a joking manner...

Solas: Have you ever had any interest in learning magic, Sera? While it has not manifested naturally, there are ways to determine whether arcane gifts lie dormant within you.Sera: What? Don't make me think about that. I have to sleep at night!Solas: Sleeping would give you the chance to explore the Fade. I could introduce you to spirits.Sera: Right, you're messing with me on purpose!Solas: Why would I do that? It is not as though I know who filled my bedroll with lizards.Sera: Heh. Fair point! That was pretty good.

...I wonder if he’s not half-serious.

So, yeah. I think Sera has some untapped/dormant magic in her.

[mademyselfreal]

hc + solas

HEADCANONS ; ALWAYS SELECTIVELY ACCEPTING ; anonymous

Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.

This is, uh. Kinda long so it’s under the cut!

Cole’s relationship with Solas is heavily dependent on whether or not Cole is made more human or spirit by the Inquisitor, so I’ve separated the headcanon by Cole’s status. 

Before the ‘Subjected to His Will’ quest, they have a good relationship (supported by field banter), even though Cole isn’t exactly a spirit. I imagine Solas considers him closer to spirit than to human, which is partly why he cares for Cole as much as he does, and I think that Solas would want to help Cole if Cole came to him with a problem of any sort, but I also think that Cole is sort of reluctant to do that. Not because he doesn’t think Solas would help, but because he knows (or thinks he knows) that the reason Solas likes him is because he’s a spirit, and if Cole comes to him with human concerns (about what he is or the things he sometimes feels), the relationship will be ruined. He knows that isn’t true, but one of the big things about Cole being partially human is his insecurities. Though I want to stress that none of Cole’s worries re:Solas come from him being the Dread Wolf; he thinks what Solas did was right (though I don’t think that means he is in favor of the Veil, just of Solas’ actions towards the Evanuris) and isn’t really intimidated either. He trusts Solas, and (like with Blackwall) doesn’t think it’s his secret to tell—though he doesn’t exactly consider it a secret because it’s something he can so easily sense. I think Solas only blocks it out when he needs to, either to stop Cole from revealing something to the party or for Cole’s on benefit, but otherwise he doesn’t mind. 

If Cole is made more spirit, I don’t think the relationship changes too much. The worries that came with being partially human are gone, so their relationship is easier and maybe more open than before. 

If Cole is made more human, I’m not sure how much changes from Solas’ perspective, but Cole is more insecure, more confused. He worries that Solas dislikes him now, or thinks differently of him because he’s human. I can’t necessarily speak for Solas, but this interaction in particular strikes me as a bit uncomfortable on Solas’ part; he wants everyone to be able to choose how they exist for themselves, but he doesn’t agree with the choice Cole and the Inquisitor (and Varric) made.

Solas: How do you feel, Cole, now that you dealt with the Templar?Cole: I don’t know. He hurt me… hurt the real Cole. I’m angry at him.Cole: I can’t let that go. I have to become more, let it make me real.Solas: You may well become fully human, after all. I never thought to see it.Cole: When did you see it before?Solas: I did not say that I had.Cole: No, you didn’t. It’s harder to hear, sometimes. Sorry.Solas: Good luck, Cole. You have taken a difficult road.

Solas wants to support Cole and be there for his friend, but isn’t exactly sure how. And Cole, aside from all the other worries that come with being human, is terrified that his friend now dislikes him because he’s changed. 

Cole: When I found out I wasn’t human, when I grew, I lost Rhys. I lost my only friend. 

Cole: This world taught me that changing means losing your friends. But now I know that doesn’t have to be true. 

And while he knows it doesn’t have to be true, and recognizes that he does still have other friends, I think it’s something he’s very concerned about with Solas. He doesn’t want to lose Solas as a friend but doesn’t think that Solas is able to (or wants to) support him while he figures out how to be human, so I think there’s a lot of avoidance following the completion of the quest as Cole sort of tiptoes around the issue. 

[corseque]

what's your take on the theory - or perhaps wild tinfoil speculation - that the dread wolf figure on the right is a symbol for the influence of the 3 forgotten ones, bc 3 sets of eyes in an image already saying a lot wit numbers, who fen-harel was friendly with back in the day iirc? what if this is the duality of solas - but it's solas vs. the corrupted fen-harel part of him?

nah, that not it. That’s complicating it too much imo. The reason Fen’Harel has multiple eyes is most likely because Pride Demons have multiple eyes. 

We know from Solas’ personal quest that Pride Demons = corrupted Spirits of Wisdom. His oldest friend is a Wisdom Spirit. “Solas” in elven means “Pride.” The most ancient elves were spirits who took on bodies made of the earth. Get it? 

“Bright and brilliant, he wanders the ways, walking unwaking, searching for wisdom…”

“He comes to me as though the Fade were just another wooded path to walk without a care in search of wisdom.”

“In his own way, he knew wisdom, as no man or spirit had before.”

“Voice ringing with fullness from both worlds, guiding me to the shining places. He calls himself Pride.”

“He did not want a body, but she asked him to come. It left a scar when he burned her off his face.”

“Bare-faced but free, frolicking fighting, fierce. He wants to give wisdom, not orders.”

“Solas, bright and sad, observes and accepts. Spirit self, seeing the soul, Solas, but somehow sorrows.”