#Dragon Age: Inquisition Spoilers

[thedasphiliasociety]

How have I never seen this before? Ah, amazing.

The past is done with us the moment we are done with it.

[aesfocus]

[ofdinosanddais1]

[DA:I Jaws of Hakkon Spoilers]

Lol so I'm playing jaws of hakkon and Kenric was like "yeah what elven god is this? It starts with g" and then it cut to my inquisitor with the Ghilain'nain vallaslin

[starfoam]

Here's how it ends:

Luminous steps through a portal, after leaving a scroll with Cassandra. She does not return for an hour, then two, then twelve, then twenty-four, then fourty-eight. Two days, five, ten, thirty, one-hundred and eighty.

The scroll contains her final orders - a restructuring of the order, now that its purpose is served. It shapes itself to suit the future that's coming, a future without the Herald of Andraste in it.

Cole stops looking first. When asked, he simply says that there's no reason to look. Blackwall moves on shortly after, then Vivienne, then slowly the others let go one by one.

Dorian and Varric hold out the longest. Dorian is angry at the world, Varric is angry at himself. Things were bad. She was not well when she left for the last mission - what she seemed to know was her last mission. She kept them away, knowing they would see. Her right and left hands, held at arm's length in the final hours of anyone seeing her.

The public responds. The hero is grieved, and Clan Lavellan grows cold with the Inquisition, even as it flourishes within Wycome. The Dalish will not forget how the world treated the best of them.

Life goes on. Eventually, new groups are formed and new stories told. Within ten years, nobody's looking for her anymore.

Somewhere in a forest lies a temple to Mythal with a burial ground for her faithful. No one has been there for a very, very long time.

Within a stone grave at the foot of the All-Mother's image, Inquisitor Lavellan's armor does not rot, even as it's overgrown by Arbor Blessing and Royal Elfroot. A single, dried-up flower lies at the stone's head.

[lanaluuart]

Playing around with Dorian's design a bit.

[kikicolors]

trapped in the fade

[thessaralka]

Bellara: "Solas killed mythal? After all that? Is this another memory from a different time?"

Scout Lace Harding, pride of the Inquisition, IQ 177: "no. He wore that same outfit in the Inquisition."

I'm sorry but I am sobbing this line of dialogue was so fucking funny. The implication that he only has two outfits, that he fucking frescoed himself in one of them, and that it was so iconically raggedy that Harding knew immediately it was from Inquisition Time asjhflamcnjfkwjajcbkwit

[thunderboltfire]

Wait a second, didn't he had an earring and some grey hair in his character's portrait, too?

[hrtiu]

Me until Veil Guard comes out

[westlywheatly]

Vallyn would love Solas even as a worm

[nesquako]

Dragon age is more alive than ever and i want to share my wisdom in this matters

[where-i-hide-my-shame]

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.

[abelas]

They made bodies from the earth. And the earth was afraid. It fought back. But they made it forget

[macenlace]

Reminder to be kind to the writers/devs as they’re beholden to a much larger company that makes the big choices as far as what they do with the final product. Don’t forget, we almost got live-service online multiplayer DAV. They remade it from scratch, YEARS into the production just to give us what we actually wanted, a single player narrative-driven game.

[thunderboltfire]

As a cishet lady, this is probably due to how the big reveal plays out, and how all the characters are presented (I’ve had only one DA:I playthrough so far and romanced Blackwall, but I've watched other romance routes, so I have a basic info on how they go).

First of all, Blackwall’s guilt is at the forefront, and it isn’t the case with the other two guys. Solas’ main alluring characteristic could be that he seems mysterious. He knows a lot of things, and has a direct link to the Inquisitor as a sort-of their mentor when it comes to controlling the anchor. Is he guilt-ridden? He is, but he bails before the end of the game, so we don’t have a lot of possibility to confront him before Tresspasser, and then it turns out that he’s an elven god. Or at least, that he’s immensely powerful. He’s done something terrible, but he believed it to be a right choice and that it’ll serve greater good, so there’s at least some redeeming quality to him playing god. He’s revealed to be a liar and a villain, but a sympathetic one. Also, the fact that he’s older fits neatly into some prevalent romance tropes connected to power dynamics - the Inquisitor is technically his boss, but Solas is more knowledgeable, in case of mages almost making it a teacher/student situation that some people may enjoy.

As for Cullen, he’s first and foremost overworked, not guilty. He’s the commander of your troops, and if anything happens, he has to be there. He also seems to be most conventionally attractive of the three. There’s surprisingly little about Cullen’s past in the Inquisition. As with all three advisors, his feature is reliability - they’re the spine of the Inquisition. Cullen’s past, and his guilt isn’t his defining feature - nobody comments on it (if I’m right, not even Varric! who have definitely met his worse version during the events from DA2). Him struggling with his addiction to lyrium is framed as a background of an important choice, and as a piece of worldbuilding. It's an opportunity to discuss the many faults of templar order as an institution, and the fate of people damaged by it, but it's hardly a big, striking reveal. If his actions, and his redemption is really powered by guilt, it isn’t apparent when viewed out of context of the previous installments. Nobody is actually going after him for his deeds, or reminding him of his service under Meredith. The Inquisition’s reputation isn’t threatened in any way by having him as an almost poster boy. He’s generally respected inside and outside of the Inquisition and to be fair I know the least about his romance but it seems to be pretty stable and consistent. If played right it won’t have a breakup and it definitely lacks a spectacular betrayal, like the other two.

But Blackwall? It’s an entirely different situation. Blackwall’s characterisation, especially in his romance is lined with guilt. He’s lying, but contrary to Solas, he has no inherent air of authority about him - the first thing you know about him is that he’s efficient, and ready to fight and die for others, which is in the area of expectations for a Grey Warden. Grey Wardens are usually respected, but they’re suited for a different kind of emergency. In fact, he seems like a stereotypical Grey Warden to the point when if you don’t take him with you and don’t listen to his banters, he’s easy to overlook and seems fairly one-dimensional.

He isn’t tied to the main quest in such a significant way as Solas and Cullen. His real identity isn’t even the one of an extreme power and ancient sins - it’s a plain crime, an evil deed so evident and revealed so early in the game that everybody is forced to confront it and has time to chew on it. And also You, the Inquisitor, are forced to confront it!

Contrary to Solas, who essentially through the Anchor and his magic in the end has power over you, you have power - and issue judgement - over Blackwall. At the moment of his reveal, all what was initially admirable and built public respect around him is irreversibly gone, and what is left is a weird mix of cowardice, courage and the will to amend. Many people in-game treat sparing him as a mistake and he has to essentially build everything from the ground up. Even during the romance, before the reveal he remarks multiple times that the Inquisitor is going to regret it long-term. Dude is regret personified.

Now, as far as romance goes, this is an extremely interesting route, but I believe that initially, this lack of a clear plot hook that'd bring him and the Inquisitor together and the fact that Blackwall fades into background so easily makes it unpopular. And after a playthrough, people may be discouraged due to the fact that his reveal is a really big deal - treated as something serious by everyone, and it’s an ugly, down-to-earth issue in comparison with Solas’ faults.

Subjective opinions on looks: DA:I has a really terrible texture for dark hair. This beard would have been working for his advantage, if it didn’t seem so weirdly slick and oily in some lightings. Looking at the general preferences, the fact that he seems like he’s unslept, unkempt, mildly unwashed and generally slightly deranged isn’t really an issue? You can’t tell me most of these characteristic don’t apply to Anders, and he has a fair share of fans. Blackwall’s base armor happens to be a padded jack, which also blurs his silhouette to the point where he seems of somewhat thicker build than the rest of the characters, it’s also fairly popular fanon interpretation. However, I don’t really think this is an issue either? DA LIs don’t have too much of a body shape difference among themselves anyway and it differentiates him nicely from a bald beanpole that is Solas and an underwear model that is Cullen.

TL;DR: Blackwall is considered either unremarkable or problematic (or even, both) in-game and it’s probably the main reason why he’s overlooked. Due to the difference in his role in the plot to the two remaining guys and due to his approach to his past, he may also seem the least charismatic of the three. I believe his looks are not as important as this.

I genuinely, maybe it's the lesbianism showing, but I genuinely can't tell what distinguishes blackwall from cullen and solas that cullen and solas get all the attention and blackwall gets next to none. what is it. they're all straight white men. blackwall and solas are both old so it can't be that. blackwall and cullen both have that regret/redemption narrative going on. blackwall and solas both lie poorly about their identity. blackwall and cullen have both killed children. so what is it! is it the facial hair! is blackwall being dtf dwarves and qunari a turnoff somehow? remember, blackwall was going to be it before they added two more straight white men as a hail mary in the final quarter. the cullen and solas girlies were going to have to settle for bull or blackwall. I don't get it.

[aves-rook-laidir]

I know that The Descent DLC was designed to be post game, aka after Solas left but holy fucking shit now there’s a really fucked up hilariously dark in game reason why Solas does not utter a god damn WORD of banter or commentary during that entire DLC.