#AND THEN SOLAS KILLS BIANCA

[starlightmeissa]

"You need to listen! Please."

varric desperately not wanting to shoot a man who he still calls his friend even after all that he's done and all that he is going to do. please give me a reason not to have to put a bolt through your heart, chuckles, i don't want that for either of us.

literally feel like my parents are being divorced during this entire section.

[mightierthanthecanon]

I am not a monster.

[liaragaming]

So, the theme of Veilguard is regret and how people deal with it.

Varric has literally been carrying his regret - the crossbow named after the woman he loved and couldn't have - around on his back for the past two games.

And Solas destroys Bianca - a symbol of regret - in the epilogue of the game.

I'm not sure what this means in the long run for Varric as a character or the overall story, but I just wanted to point that out.

[lodane]

it's like playing whack-a-mole trying to block all these fucking dreadveilwolfguard posts, wish you'd all agree on tags 😩

[lyriumheart]

knowing the truth about solas being a spirit and regretting it, and being responsible for the tranquility of the titans and loss of connection to the Stone makes. me. insane when looking back on his conversations with varric. and just their relationship on the whole.

"why do the dwarves not know? why have they forgotten? did someone make them forget? how can they not care what i did to them?"

"do you miss the stone? do you know what i took from you?"

"look at what i did to you. your people are mutilated, forever forced to change from what they once were. and i did this to you."

"you don't even know what i did to you. the horrific crime i comitted against you and your people. you have no idea what you lost or what i did. you're not even angry at me. why aren't you angry at me?"

"you should be angry at me and trying to restore what i took. how can you continue on the way that you are? how are you even whole?"

and then we have harding's comment in da:tv

this comment from harding, after all of the conversations with varric, in hindsight, really does highlight something about solas. for all his guilt and regret, being practically one of if not THE only person who knows what truly happened to the titans. being one RESPONSIBLE-

at no point does he make attempts to fix that until he is convinced to potentially at the end of da:tv.

his conversations with varric are clearly some self projections, and wondering how varric can't be like HIM- he DOES know what the elves lost and what was done, and so he DOES want the old world to be restored. it's to absolve himself of his own guilt, along with trying to fix his mistake. how can he NOT fight? how can his own people not see what they lost and not try to put it back? he has to undo what he did.

but he never does this for the dwarves.

he often will say how he doesnt relate to the elves, and how when asking him 'who are your people', he avoids the topic. because the elves are NOT his people. he is a spirit! and his priorities always align with one simple thing:

that he regrets being made flesh. if he could go back to being a spirit, if all the elves could, if it could all just go back to the way it was before, everything would be fine!

it takes at least four people at the end of da:tv to make him see that this is ultimately selfish and unrealistic. that no amount of regret or attempts to put things back the way they were will undo what he did. in his obsession with self absolution, he completely forgets about the titans, and the blight, all being because of HIM.

he talks to varric, he talks to harding, all the while knowing what he did and being oh so sad about it but never stops to think. wow i actually may have the power to help with this!

he is so, SO focused on his own crusade for himself while also convincing himself that it's for the greater good. telling himself that oh! this time his great plans for the 'right thing' will go well, surely! the last few times, with the titans, and the blight, getting mythal killed, the sealing away the evanuris and changing the world because he messed up the ritual, then trying to awaken his orb only to give it to an immortal blighted magister that explodes the veil- those were all just! flukes! this one will go right FOR SURE!

and is that not just very similar to varric? how varric repeatedly also makes mistakes, and then doesn't face them? he brought hawke into the deep roads and put them in danger, possibly got their sibling blighted, brought back the red lyrium which led to (gestures) all THAT, introduced hawke to anders which led to (gestures) BOOM, led hawke to corypheus, told bianca about the deep roads which led to corypheus getting his hands on red lyrium.

but their key difference? varric simply accepts his mistakes and attempts to do better the next time. varric accepts that the past cannot be changed, no matter how badly he regrets it. he has to move on, he has to do better, he is still here, people are still here, and theyre worth trying for.

"That's the world. Everything you build, it tears down. Everything you've got, it takes. And it's gone forever."

"The only choices you get are to lie down and die or keep going. He kept going. That's as close to beating the world as anyone gets."

like of course. of course solas couldnt keep rook inside a prison of regret by using varric as the catalyst! because that's just not who varric is! that's who solas is. solas saw parts of himself in varric, but didn't listen enough to what varric has always been saying. he never does! he doesn't self reflect, he doesn't consider, truly consider that he's wrong until he is being held at knifepoint and confronted with the literal specters of his past telling him to stop fucking self flagellating and convincing himself that he knows best or that this isn't just out of self pity. 'it's for the elves', he says every morning when he wakes up.

for all solas' wisdom, he truly is poisoned by pride and regret. it's just so. (clenches fist)

he spent all this time using varric's memory, surely he is familiar enough with how varric thinks and feels at this point? surely he undersands now?

you have to stand with him at the edge of the world, teetering on the edge of the abyss and decide if he's worth putting in the effort to make him truly take everything varric said and did to heart. to take what we have now and make it better, instead of dragging a corpse of guilt around for eternity.

[felassan]

GamesRadar: "It felt like we needed to do something": How Varric Tethras went from nearly being left out of Dragon Age: The Veilguard to becoming a foundational character

Interview | Exploring the role of Varric Tethras in Dragon Age: The Veilguard with BioWare's creative director, John Epler

Excerpts under cut due to spoilers.

John Epler: "Varric is such a fan favorite, and has been part of Dragon Age since Dragon Age 2 – it felt like we needed to do something. At the end of the game, it's very clear that a chapter of Dragon Age is being closed, even as a new one is being started, and having Varric involved in the ending and that final beat in the way that he was felt right to us."

""While it may have "felt right" for Varric to be in Dragon Age: The Veilguard and factor into its ending in this way, says Epler, it took some time for the team to come to that conclusion. With such a long development cycle, the loveable dwarf wasn't even part of the story at one stage. "It's interesting, because in some of our earliest versions of what we wanted to do for Dragon Age 4, Varric was not actually involved. Varric was doing his own thing as the Viscount of Kirkwall," Epler says. "But I think especially as we got to the version of Dragon Age: The Veilguard that shipped, it felt very strange to have a story about Solas not also include Varric. For us, having them [Solas and Varric] exist in contrast throughout the story - obviously, with Varric being something existing entirely in Rook's mind - provides different ways of looking at the core theme, which is regret." As Epler explains, Varric is "not someone who does a good job of confronting his regret", whether that be in Inquisition when it comes to his love interest and crossbow namesake, Bianca, or with his brother in DA2. Rook, on the other hand, is forced to confront them, while Solas's regrets "drive everything he does." He's a character that "refuses to be happy, refuses to feel joy, because he feels it'd be a betrayal of his people, of what he's done". But as Epler adds, having Varric "be the kind of linchpin" around which all the regrets hinge "felt powerful". Varric may not be good at confronting his own regrets, but his death and role eventually pushes Rook to face theirs, and in turn, you can try to help Solas get past his own if you so choose.""

"Without a mark on your hand like the Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition, or an army you can bring together like the Grey Warden in Dragon Age: Origins, Rook is "just a person with a team", as Epler puts it, so you have to make sure that they're as ready as possible to face what's to come. [...] Epler says Varric felt like a natural character to juxtapose Solas. Acting kind of like "the angel and the devil on your shoulder", Solas - while not actually a devil - is the one who's more focused on the mission and goal of stopping the gods, while Varric constantly reminds you that your team matters and you need to take care of them first and foremost. The decision to kill Varric early on was partly fueled by a worry that people would find Solas "a little too sympathetic in his goals". From past experience, Epler says the team saw a lot of that with The Trespasser DLC, where many really wanted to help Solas and believed he was right. But he is going to end the world, after all, and once you realize the twist about Tethras' true fate, Varric serves to demonstrate that "Solas will sacrifice almost anyone or anything in pursuit of what he sees as the greater good." But even if he is willing to go to extreme lengths, Solas does still regret what happens to his old friend. In fact, Epler explains that he even finds it comforting to think that Varric is still out there in some form. "Varric's a complex character," says Epler. "He runs away from his problems, he likes to shade the truth, even to the people that he's working with. The Varric that you see, the Varric that Rook experiences, [are] the best parts of Varric that Rook remembers. It's just this mentor figure that's always there for them. And I think even Solas finds some comfort in knowing that there's still a piece of him out there, even though he knows that it's manipulation, it's not the real Varric."

""DA2 starts with a character death about 45 minutes in, when your siblings dies. And the feedback we got, which was very fair feedback is, 'okay, but I don't care, because I've known this person for like, 45 minutes'. So having Varric die at the beginning, originally that was it. He was going to die, and it was going to be this big, shocking moment," Epler says. "But part of the problem with making a game 10 years after the last one, and needing to make it so existing players – but also new players – can get in and feel a lot of the same things, is you can't bank on two games worth of built up memories, built up attachment, to make the death land. For a lot of players it would have been like, 'okay, but I've only known this guy for 45 minutes. So why do we care?'" In order to still have the death at the beginning of the game, the team eventually landed on the idea of his not-so-real presence in the Lighthouse in order to give players more time with Varric. "And that's the beauty of game development," Epler adds, "something that you start off with as a way to solve a problem actually becomes so core to the identity game.""

"Varric Tethras was originally brought to life by Mary Kirby, a veteran developer who has worked on the Dragon Age series for many years at BioWare. Sadly, she was part of the layoffs last year, but as Epler fondly highlights, Kirby wrote the vast majority of the conversations you have with Varric. "She was one of the first people we told 'Hey, so we're talking about killing Varric, you're okay with this, right?' Because at that time, she wasn't even on the project," Epler says. "But Mary was fantastic to work with, she and I worked [together in the past]. I was Varric's cinematic designer for Inquisition and for DA2. There are a couple of things that came up towards the end of the project that I had an opportunity to write. And it was lovely to remind myself how Mary had always written Varric, and how that character came together.""

[source]

[sakharinedragon]

Have y'all found this conspiracy board hideout in Docktown? It's super interesting to look at.

It connects Varric (represented by Bianca) with the Inquisition, Kirkwall and Rook/the Veilguard (the dagger)

The Inquisition with almost everything

I think the bow is Leliana?

Scattered around Rook are the factions of DATV

I assume that's a wolf representing Solas between the Inquisition and Rook

I wonder who all the crossed out people are supposed to be. 🤔Only counting 100% unavoidable deaths, and assuming it's main character allies, not enemies killed.

Warden: 5 - could be Cailen, Duncan, Riorden, Howe, and ?

Kirkwall: 5 - Meredith, Orsino, third Hawk sibling(?), Bertrand(?), and the Vicount dies, too, right? Not sure if those are all important enough.

Inquisition: 7 - Divine Justinia, Lord Seeker Lucius, Clarel, Hawk/Loghain/Stroud, Felix Alexius?, Coryphius, Flemmeth

Veilguard: 8, but they seem to be sorted to the factions like thus: (cut because spoilers)

1 Crows (the bird) - ?

1 Mourn watch - ??

1 Shadow dragons - Viper?

1 Wardens (the chalice) - Warden Commander Dickhead

1 Lords of Fortune - Taash's mum

3 Rook/Veilguard - Varric, Bellara/Neve, Harding/Davrin (idk if these are 100% certain deaths. My first run was a medium-bad ending lol)

Any input welcome!

Map location of the room:

[sandraugiga]

Just to have it in writing,

I think Varric is going to die. That was an a suspicious cutoff in the gameplay. I think that the evanuris, or the chaos surrounding them, is going to kill him, because he no longer has Bianca to protect him. He is not in any of the later shots or previews. We will not see his death, because they want Rook and Hardin (and by extention us the players) to believe it was Solas that killed him. Hardin in the comics was pretty vocal about wanting to kill Solas anyway. So it would give the new team a great base to form an opposing force.

We will get a shot of Hardin swearing revenge, holding the shattered remains of Bianca in her hands.

It will be remade and become Hardins weapon, like we seen in the picture underwater.

Later it will come out Solas tried to protect him and failed as he did with almost all his plans. (Because he is always right about the dangers, but never in how to deal with said dangers.)

[dustplustars]

reading bad takes on Solas makes me WANT TO SCREAM.

Saw someone on Twitter say that what if Solas took the mark from Inky because the mark was turning them into a god and not killing them, and that Solas wouldn't want a rival. Then a comment from someone else that was like, OH YEAH HE'D DO IT TO ACHIEVE HIS GOALS, HE'D KILL INKY.

LMAO Y'ALL DON'T KNOW HIS CHARACTER AT ALL PLEASEEEE.

The mark is clearly fucking killing Inky. Dude doesn't even want to KILL an Inky he can't fucking stand. He's not nice to them, but he doesn't let them die from the mark.

Varric is trying to stop him in DA:V and he destroys Bianca, INSTEAD OF HURTING VARRIC. PLEASE!!!!

[arlathen]

i know we're goofing on it but like. varric's plan being basically to remind solas that he has friends who love him in this world as just like a desperate. we care about you please dont do this. AND. solas destroying bianca because he specifically didnt want to have to kill varric.

like i was worried about their characterization of solas but it seems like it is -- or can be -- extremely sympathetic to him.

[sweet-night-mares]

Solas destroying bianca and not killing varric is only proof to varric that solas is not just a friend but a good person… like solas you should know this is only going to make him want to save you more…

[bloedewir]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Solas: *politely ask to left him alone and not interrupt his delulu doings*

Varric: *interrupting*

Solas: *destroying Bianca as a warning*

Varric and the whole da-fandom:

He did sent the cute letter in "the missing" after all. And didn't kill Varric yet he surely could. It's some kind of creepy ancient elven way to reaffirm a friendship status, I guess.

[bearofohu]

think ive finally figured out how im going to do varric's death in my world state, without the nastiness of solas being the one to kill him

what happens is, varric's attempt to talk down solas gets ruined, because my lavellan (who is ANGRY) got there first. the moment varric and rook show up solavellan are already fighting and she is kind of beating the shit out of him because he is holding back and terrified as fuck to be fighting her

but hes still got some semblance of hold on the ritual, so varric gives the go ahead for rook to bring the statues down, thinking the mess would break up the fight so they could all just talk. obviously this isnt what happens

the moment solas realizes the rituals been fucked, he doesnt even think about it, he doesnt even realize varric and rook were there or they did that. all he does is push lavellan off the platform out of the gods' sight and beg, BEG her to flee

rook and varric realize they fucked something, but its too late. ghilan'nain pulls up first and attacks the first thing she sees, varric & rook. they obviously cant fight her, so she rips up bianca, kills varric and fucks up rook when he tries to save him. lavellan is too busy trying to get tf out of there to realize varric is there, and solas only realizes whats happening to varric RIGHT before he gets banished into fade jail, at the same time ghilan'nain gives rook the wound that connects him and solas

and there you have it, lavellan at the ritual like she should be, solas not responsible for varric. two rooks one stone

[malizanu]

Varric was young when he realized tragedy would always follow him. Bianca, the real one, was by his side as they silently digested the consequences of their love story. Like the most succulent meat, their flavor could only be savored through the death of the innocents. If this was the outcome, maybe they weren't meant to be.

Years later, when his brother died… No, when he killed his brother, it wrecked him, but still nothing compared to when he saw Leandra's life fading away, as Hawke tried to hide her pain for the sake of one last happy memory. Her mother died proud of her daughter. Like Varric, she saw the beautiful parts of a broken hero.

He stayed with Hawke for as long as she needed, and when Aveline and Merrill took her under their wings, he spent the rest of the week drunk.

"You smell like shit", said a voice by his door.

"Isabela!", soaked in bad alcohol, he would later remember that he forgot her nickname. If the woman noticed that — of course she did —, she said nothing.

"Hawke smelled like shit too", she tried, but her voice carried no trace of fun. Varric contemplated how long it would take the pirate to deal with what was going on with her heart. "I gave her a bath. Since Andraste's compassion blessed me today, should I bathe you too?"

"Hah! You wish, Rivaini, but Bianca will get jealous", he tried to smile and the expression felt so foreign.

"Oh, you flatter yourself too much. I'm sure if you bothered to install some legs, Bianca would run away."

"It'd leave me devastated, but you know what? It's better for her", Isabela gave him an odd look as he continued. "You should run away from me too, Isabela. Tragedy follows me. And now it also follows those I love."

***

I'm writing what was supposed to be a one-shot focused on the reactions of the Inquisitor's companions when Solas took the anchor. SUPPOSED because there's already 4k words and my Inky still hasn't woken up. Well, unfortunately as the story is progressing this bit needed to be cut, but I really enjoyed writing it so why not post it here, right? Hope you all enjoy it too!

[firelxdykatara]

Dragon Age 4 looks amazing, that gameplay trailer had me on the edge of my seat and I cannot fucking wait for the game to drop. Somewhat less enthused for the inevitable wave of fandom discourse that's gonna rear it's ugly head, especially given how BG3 went over, but whatever. (Also I hate that the name changed to 'The Veilguard', not just because 'Dreadwolf' was cool as fuck but the 'the' throws things off. DAV looks better as an acronym than DATV. But whatever whatever no one consulted ME on this, it's fine, I'm fine.)

It did make me start thinking about Solas again and how little nuance the fandom approached him with last time, and it's just funny because like... it's very easy to understand where Solas is coming from. How he sees what he is planning as necessary, as fixing an ancient wrong that he has always meant to put right.

Will people die? Yes, and he thinks that's unfortunate--and, according to him in the trailer, he took the precautions he could to minimize that loss of life as much as possible. But he's not doing any of this with the specific aim to kill people or 'do genocide'--that was never his goal.

He is trying to fix something that he broke countless ages ago.

As he says, 'the veil is a wound'--a wound that he ripped open in the very fabric of space and time, and which he is trying now to heal.

And the thing is, he is ancient. He does not conceive of time the way mortals do, nor the importance and significance of mortal lives. I would like to think that romanced solas vs unromanced will have some affect on the way he goes about things, because falling in love was entirely unexpected and had to alter his views at least a little. Not enough to sway him from his course, but perhaps enough to make him feel the coming losses more keenly than he otherwise would. But even failing that, the connections he made during Inquisition are clearly not nothing to him--Varric is able to draw his attention, keep him distracted, might even have been on the verge of talking him down, we don't know. But as easily as he shattered Bianca, he could've killed Varric to end the threat he posed, and he didn't.

Mortal lives mean something to him now that they didn't when he set out at the beginning of Inquisition to tear down the veil with no regard for the mortal lives he would destroy in the process. And I'm wondering if those very safeguards are what release the big bads when Rook fucks up his ritual and that leads into the rest of the game. But anyway, my point is this: Solas does not look at life the way someone with a mortal lifespan does. He can't! Modern Thedas is the burned out shell of a building that he once set fire to without realizing what the consequences would be--and he is determined to rebuild it, because no matter what life has sprung up in the cracks of the burned out husk, his original fault was destroying the life that had been there to begin with.

People don't tend to overly worry about the insects and birds nests and whatever else they might have to bulldoze through when it comes to tearing down some condemned structure and rebuilding in its place, and that's how Solas views the modern world of Thedas and the lives within it. And I get disagreeing with him and wanting to stop him at any cost, but I don't get assigning maliciousness or bloodthirst to his motivations when there's no reason to believe he sees this as anything less than a tragic necessity.

Then again, I think Anders was right too so, y'know. But one bomb lobbed into the fandom commonroom at a time lmao.