#Rook meta

[damallarky]

Ok. So I got my Rook’s backstory planned out guys.

His name is Renan. He’s a Mage and a traveling musician who busks in and around Minrathous. Rook is his stage name.

He is the brother of my canon Inquisitor, Aisling Lavellan. There are five siblings in total. Ren is the oldest, and Aisling is the middle child.

His surname isn’t Lavellan, though. Gotta see what the names are in DA:V.

More under the cut!

His father was a former circle mage and his mother was a Dalish hunter.

Morag, Ren’s father, was part of a team of four mages given special permission from their circle to study ancient elven ruins to “further enhance Chantry understanding of Thedas and its history.” Jokes on them because the four Templars that were assigned to babysit the group were all mage sympathizers (one was in a relationship with one of the mages in the group, one had a mage sister who he cared about deeply, the youngest Templar was a good friend of Morag's and the last one just didn't care lol) so they basically let him get married and have kids while he was still technically doing what he set out to do.

The family traveled a lot from ruin to ruin. At some point, the group is called back to return to the Circle, but everyone decides to lie and say Morag "died" so he can stay with his family.

The good times don't last, though. Eventually, word gets out that there is an apostate running around, and Templars are sent to bring Morag back. During the process, their parents are killed, and the kids get separated, with Ren being caught by slavers and sold to Tevinter and the rest of his siblings being adopted into Clan Lavellan.

(Consequently, the reason Aisling begged to go to the conclave was because she was hoping she’d find Ren there, not realizing he never made it to a circle.)

Ren spends four years as a slave. His master's wife notices that he has a lovely singing voice and a talent for music, so she teaches him how to play the lute, harp, harpsichord, flute, and anything else she wants him to. He enjoys it because he loves music, but he knows that he is basically being kept as a pet to show off when the mood strikes.

(This is also when he meets the spirit Hope, who ends up taking the form of a Rook. She is also the inspiration behind Ren's stage name.)

At seventeen, he had a clandestine affair with his master's daughter, who was the same age as him. I think they were friends, and they cared about each other, but their relationship was more about teenage lust and Ren's cockiness than anything else. There was also maybe a little bit of a power imbalance that Ren doesn't really consider until much, much later in life. When his master's wife finds out, she is furious and orders Ren whipped within an inch of his life. He probably would have died had the daughter not begged her father to intervene. Ren is sent off to work with the rest of the household slaves. The other slaves were delighted to learn that the golden boy wasn't so golden after all, and they made his life hell.

Nine months later, Ren is summoned by his master. He learns that he has gotten his master's daughter pregnant. On her request, Ren is given his freedom on the condition that he takes the child (a boy) and never speaks a word of it to anyone.

He accepts and leaves a free man. He names his son Morag, Mor for short, after his father.

Except now he's a kid with a kid, with no money and nowhere to go in a country that actively treats his people like chattel. He's scared, and as a result, he does many things he is not proud of, things that he ends up regretting later in life, like drinking heavily and not being as good of a father to Mor as he should have been.

To support himself and his son, Ren becomes a musician and plays at bars and brothels, wherever he can get work. While busking, he meets an elven woman named Leena. Their relationship is difficult at first, but eventually, Ren decides to get his shit together, and the two eventually fall in love.

They get married, and after a while, they have their daughter, Esana. At some point, they both join the Shadow Dragons. During a mission, Leena is badly wounded and later dies of an infection. This almost causes Ren to fall off the bandwagon and back into his addiction. He, through great effort, manages to stop himself for the sake of his children who need him. The withdrawals were horrible, and it was one of the hardest things he ever had to do, but he did it because he loves his kids so much, and he wants to be a good father to them.

This is why he only drinks water, juice, or wine occasionally.

He still works for the Shadow Dragons, and now his son is beginning to work for them, too, despite the fact that Ren would rather he not put himself in danger.

More Facts

Ren is either 36 or 38, depending on how long it's been since Inquisition.

That would make Mor either 19 or 21.

Whatever the case, Esana is 13.

Mor is a mage like both of his parents. He fights more like a rogue, however. Veil ranger perhaps?

Esana's magic hasn't awakened (yet) but recently she has been having nightmares of monsters wanting her to "let them in".

Ren is a Dreamer like his father! He finds the Fade slightly annoying.

Mor was originally going to be revealed later in my Rook's story, which is why he didn't show up in my Rook's prologue fic.

Ren uses humor so he doesn't have to think about his emotions. It drives Hope nuts.

Hope is the GOAT of the bunch. Mor probably wouldn't have survived to young adulthood had it not been for Hope.

Hope is still relatively new to the whole "not being an actual spirit" thing. Like Cole, she still feels fairly compelled to provide hope to those who need it. Except now, she also eats mice and steals shiny things.

Esana unfortunately inherited her father's lack of self-preservation.

Esana and Mor are close despite their age difference. Mor is the best big brother.

Ren and Solas are going to drive each other insane. Especially once it's revealed just who the Inquisitor is. Ren and Solas will eventually find they have a lot in common and will both help each other heal in the end.

Idk where it will go in the actual game, but for now, I'm deciding that Ren and Solas will become very dear to one another. Bestie-in-Laws.

The family sitcom is called My Brother-in-Law the Dread Wolf.

Ren is very jealous of Solas's Dread Wolf form. Solas delights in this fact.

I also do not know who Ren is going to romance. I have never struggled so hard to make that choice.

[veilkeeper]

there's something interesting about emmrich's hangout being so... structured and composed. everyone else's hangout is under the guise of some sort of errand, yes, but they're very casual and free-form. whereas with emmrich, he's taking you on this tour of the memorial gardens in the necropolis. and it is a tour—when he shows you the undead tableaux, it feels like he's reading off a script with the way he describes it to rook, tour guide style. and later, when he opens up to rook, it is always him initiating with the distinct feeling of something being said on purpose, like he had prepared to discuss it.

the flirt at the end gives a romance-flavoured explanation: that he was specifically trying to impress rook, that this is an attempt to endear himself to them. and in a lot of ways, it does look like that: he takes rook to one of the most beautiful, peaceful places he knows, opens up to them about his past, and then he has tea set up at the end of it, like a good host. (he is also rather caught off guard when you flirt with him here, and it could be interpreted as him being embarrassed at being caught out, or trying to walk it back so he doesn't offend).

however.... i don't really think that was his intention? this is probably coloured by the fact that i feel like, comparatively, emmrich has had very few one on one interactions with rook to this point and he breezes by the only flirt before this, but i don't think he walked into the memorial gardens with any intention to charm or otherwise woo rook, here. i think his intention was to get them alone and get an honest read on how they felt about him. specifically, about his work as a necromancer.

if you've rotated different people through the party with him, and if you've paid attention to the conversations he's had with others in the lighthouse, it becomes abundantly clear basically immediately that everyone has opinions on necromancy, and they largely fall into the territory of distrusting, put off, or even outright disgusted by it. a lot of emmrich's early banter with several party members is him going about the pretty exhausting ordeal of defending his magic, the mourn watch, his fields of study, manfred's existence, etc. and because of the lack of one on one time with rook, i'd be surprised if he felt like he'd really had an opportunity to get a read on what his new colleague actually thinks about it all.

so i think he is trying to impress rook, just... not like that. i think he's trying to prove that the necropolis is beautiful, that it's laden in history and rituals that mean something. that the mourn watch is good (the sort of order that would take in an orphan, and give him purpose and structure), and that even necromancers can fear death. i think he's trying to prove that he's a person, under all the misconceptions about his work that seem to go around the lighthouse when he isn't looking.

and i think that's why he looks so taken aback and genuinely surprised when rook flirts with him at the end—because it really wasn't his intention, but he recovers fast enough to pivot with grace. i don't think he's uninterested, i just think he wasn't sure rook could be.

[boygirlbowie]

something symbolic about the fact that Edwin was almost dragged down in the lust room but Charles pulled him to safety. something about everywhere being hell if you punish yourself. Edwin has spent his whole life so repressed he grew up taught that the feelings he had were unnatural and then he met Charles who wore eyeliner and touched him like it was nothing and wouldnt stop smiling

anyways this post was inspired by this gifset but I know others have also giffed that scene :]

[vaguely-concerned]

on the one hand I think inner demons could stand to have a bit more romanced rook specific content, but on the other hand the underlying in-built implication that 'yours is the one true voice of comfort and safety in my inner world' is a sentiment and intimacy so way beyond the romantic or the platonic or any secret third thing you could care to name that it makes me lose my entire poor little mind a bit. it's so big and fundamental — near-existential — that in that exact moment at least the distinctions kind of seem irrelevant.

all the people lucanis' mind conjures up along the way are relationships he has that are unavoidably mixed and fraught in some ways even when they're also full of love (they are fraught BECAUSE they're full of love) — the good in them inseparable from things that hurt him at the same time. (it's about: the basic disorganized attachment patterns this poor guy is dragging around with him. careful with those, they're dellamorte heirlooms. what you love also inevitably hurts you and you won't be allowed to have one without the other, you have to surrender parts of your soul to hold on to what little you have left: this is the story up until now.) and the idea that rook isn't that to him — that beneath the fear of wanting them when romanced (which is more its own separate thing because within this psychology, actively wanting something and not just clinging on for dear life to even a meager status quo lest you lose it is in itself dangerous bordering on catastrophic), this is a relationship where there isn't resentment, or guilt, or shame, or dread, or rage, or self-hate, or any of the other emotions that keep him paralyzed, unable to move this way or that. no debts, nothing owed of yourself and your soul's substance except what you can freely and safely and happily give. love and freedom don't coexist — but, I mean, you're almost starting to make me think........... unless...👀👀👀. the unconditional and undramatic 'you are here and I am here with you, you can be exactly how you are right now with me and it's safe for us both even though you're afraid it won't be, I'm not going anywhere' acceptance rook shows him here that he returns to them in the big romance scene, when it's rook who needs it. the way he's just. standing there in the center of it all, like a child desperately helplessly waiting to be found, hiding in the place he hopes you'll know to look first. (rook does know. it's one of the first things they say in there.)

in short the most important room in his little mind palace for the romance is the very first room — the one where rook isn't. where, in fact, rook cannot be, because they disprove the entire structure of the place with their existence and presence in his life. with everyone else he's putting words in their mouths about what they think of him, and rook is the one who actually gets to come in to speak their own words to him — and have him listen. ('he'll listen to you, he always listens to you', 'your voice is a comfort'.) of course rook isn't present anywhere else in there — at the risk of stating the obvious to a tedious degree, they aren't one of the locks, they're bringing the key. in the very finest 'the messenger and the message' sort of way.

[msviolacea]

In today's Dragon Age brainrot, I am avoiding work by thinking about how the potential lesson to learn from the Veilguard gameplay is not "Solas was right all along and our Rook fucked everything up" but "Solas was probably right to try to fix things Back in the Day, but no solution is without consequences, and once the world has adjusted itself around those consequences trying to unmake everything is the wrong choice, especially if you decide that the people who exist in the new world are somehow lesser beings than the ones you knew."

(Aside: if I had a nickel for every time a ridiculously powerful immortal character named Sola(u)s tried to fix a world-ending calamity with an effective but ultimately terrible solution and then eons later wanted to destroy the new version of the world to try to bring back the one he previously loved, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, etc.)

And the lesson to learn as PCs is not "we should never have tried to stop Solas we fucked up the world!" but "it's never wrong to try to save the world, but sometimes your solution is going to create even more problems, and you'll need to live with the consequences."

Looking forward to a(nother) game that hopefully has a moral of "creating a better world means working with what exists, with the people you have, and putting your trust in the people you love to help you shape the future."

[the-northern-continent]

“It’s a pride demon. Probably sensed Solas’ ego.”

The pride demon: *immediately sticks to Rook like a magnet*

Solas himself: *sticks to Rook like a magnet*

Every other pride demon in Thedas: *sticks to Rook like a magnet*

Yeah. Yeah, Varric. It definitely sensed Solas’ ego.

[uchidachi]

A friend linked me this great visualization of Bull & Solas’ chess game:

And I think it really does a good job at showing why this game was chosen for the banter. Solas moves a pawn to block the Arishok (Bull’s queen) from being able to save Bull’s king when Solas’ knight puts him in check. This leads to the eventual checkmate.

(Also, it’s interesting that Bull doesn’t have a Qunari name for the king piece. Or maybe he does, but doesn’t use it)

This is extremely intriguing for their characters and also is a metaphorical foreboding for Solas’ plans. (Is he putting an unimportant piece in danger to protect the one with more potential that is needed for the endgame? Or is he recognizing the power of even the weakest piece, when used in the right place?)

There’s also this part of the Wiki page for the real life game:

I’m kind of insane about Solas winning the game by “allowing a double rook sacrifice” right now.

[hyperions-light]

okay everyone today let’s talk about profound, overwhelming emotion as a theme in Veilguard

Sounds fun right

Gonna do like a sort of deconstructed essay thing (or I WAS, but this is an actual essay. Sigh)

Thesis: DATV is exploring how its characters confront and process emotions and events so overwhelming that they could define the characters entire lives if ignored or pushed aside; the player is encouraged to provide the characters with the appropriate emotional tools to dismantle the seemingly impossible obstacles that stand in their way, in order to complete their character arcs and contribute to the resolution of the central conflict.

WOagh this got way long, like REALLY long, so I am cutting here. I hope you didn't think the Grey Warden essay was verbose, bc this is much longer! You've been warned lol

PART I: ISATUNOLL

I feel like we have to talk about Harding first bc what’s more overwhelming than having the entire history of your race shoved on you at once? (I've decided to relocate to the computer, so you know I'm taking this seriously) So Harding gets magic rock powers, and then you have that sort of lull in her story where she's just trying to feel them out, but you can already see the game setting up the dilemma, because she's constantly checking against Rook to see what they think about it. She doesn't know how to feel-- should she be worried, excited? You can encourage her down different paths, but whatever you choose, you're providing a way for her to conceptualize this thing that (as far as she knows) has never really happened to anyone else.

And then when you go to meet the Oracle, the game introduces the idea of this overwhelming rage, this intense frustration that IS hers, but also isn't. She (probably) doesn't know what happened to the Titans by that point (you can do Regrets of the Dread Wolf pretty early but idk if it's able to be finished at that point?) but I think the stone giant you fight there is her inborn anger resonating with the much larger, dormant anger of the Titans. And you see her deny her own anger and her own feelings generally (the coffee scene with Lucanis, while tonally lighthearted, is intended to set this up). Again, Rook can intervene, and this time you also see your companions providing their own advice (Lucanis and Taash both tell her not to hide her anger/try to make people happy and Davrin repeatedly urges her to stand and face 'whatever it is' directly). So both Rook and their friends are supplying tools to deal with this upcoming confrontation.

So, the culmination of the arc comes in Isana Negat, where Harding faces the physically manifested anger of the Titans in the form of herself. She says it is her anger, and it IS, she is angry and they are angry, together; Isatunoll-- I am, we are. She did not know what to do with it, and that is why it is here; the game is positing that avoiding confrontation and acceptance of one's feelings can lead to harm for oneself AND for others. It IS Harding that is attacking you, because it was her raising the enemies in the cavern. But, at the same time, Harding is here out of a desire to protect others, and she is compassionate to this manifestation; she apologizes for not knowing how to confront it and letting it run wild in this way.

Fortunately, by this point Rook and company have already provided her with the tools to be successful in this encounter. She does not turn away from her anger, she does not attempt to run or dissemble as she might have done before. By the time Rook reaches the platform she has already absorbed the being; she is just having a hard time fully accepting it. Rook and the other companion physically grab hold of her, as Rook directs her down the path of acceptance through compassion, or acceptance through embracing anger. It is important that neither choice offers a denial. Through the strength of the unity of the team, here represented by physical closeness, and because Harding herself has changed as a character, she is able to integrate the Titans' anger and affirm that she and the other dwarves will continue to persist in spite of what was done to them. DAI players may recognize this as a well-placed echo of the conversation thread between Solas and Varric about the man who persisted in spite of losing everything; Varric said then that the fact that the man lived, that he continued, was a triumph in itself. The dwarves triumph as a race here, by not allowing the horrific violation committed against the Titans destroy them, and so does Harding.

The final piece of Harding's journey is her meeting with Stalgard and his sister outside of Isana Negat, in front of the mountain that was/is a Titan. She returns to them the knowledge that was lost for centuries, and the anger that comes with it, but affirms that they cannot return to what was; this brings change, GOOD change, to the dwarven people and will redefine them. By successfully accepting this outsized emotional trauma, Harding has helped her people, and becomes a more effective member of her team. Catharsis, acceptance, and emotional growth make her stronger.

PART II: I AM NOT THIS

When Rook meets Lucanis, he has been kept in a prison for a year, being tortured and violated by the Venatori, who have been attempting to turn him into a demon. It hasn't worked correctly, because Lucanis and Spite have an accord. However, you first see him just kind of running around killing whoever he comes across; Rook provide direction and a specific target, a chance for freedom. It is significant here that the prison is underwater; Lucanis is, metaphorically, drowning. The prison is also referred to as the Ossuary, which is a place you store the bones of the dead; the outside world believed he was dead, and, metaphorically, he did die here. You kill his torturer, but it is not enough; the woman who kidnapped him and the orchestrator of his violation still lives.

Rook returns to Treviso where Lucanis finds out that he has truly lost almost everything. His grandmother, Caterina, appears to be dead, and his city, Treviso, is occupied by the Antaam. The only thing he has left is Illario, and he immediately grabs onto the idea that Zara, who he believes killed Caterina, is going to kill Illario, too. He panics in response, but he is trained as a Crow to shut down his emotion, and practiced at doing so from his year spent constantly disassociating in the Ossuary. He says he needs to work; Illario and Teia protest, but he insists. He is returning to the thing he knows how to do, grabbing for a sense of normalcy when everything else is lost and he believes the little he has left is in danger. He will destroy the threat and this will also conveniently allow him to put off his real emotional trauma from the prior year.

Every cutscene Rook has with Lucanis between his major plot events in this section involves him trying to contain and ignore Spite. He tries to constantly stay awake to ensure that the demon cannot take over, and he tries to befriend and placate his new associates by buying them stuff (a VERY rich person thing to do) and taking care of them. He is trying to convince himself and them that he is NOT dangerous; he is not a demon, not an abomination. But he is not confronting his fear, he is only putting it off; often, in conversation with others he will be flippant about Spite, or he will deflect their concern about it. He chooses his 'bedroom' in part because it can contain Spite, and because it is the farthest possible location from the Eluvian, where Spite keeps trying to go (I just noticed that! Very fun!). In the meantime, he is also ignoring the fact that Illario is being extremely suspicious, because he doesn't want to know that his brother is the one who hurt him. Lucanis is an astute person by nature, and could certainly have observed this, had he not been deliberately trying to obscure it from himself.

Davrin is a huge problem for him because he is the most direct person in Veilguard. He shows up and tells Lucanis that if Spite overtakes him, he will kill him. This touches on Lucanis' fear of his own lack of control and drives too directly at what he wants to ignore. They are immediately at odds, which is made worse by Lucanis' 'failure' at Weisshaupt, which causes him to lash out at Davrin. He believes that the fact that he was unable to kill Ghilan'nain is indicative of him losing his abilities as an assassin, which is one of the only familiar things that he has left. Fortunately, Rook and company are there to reassure him; the situation is helped by the presence of Taash, Emmrich and Neve, who are unafraid of Spite, and whom he can rely on to control the demon if he cannot. However, the problem remains that he refuses to seriously deal with Spite in any way. As the inextricable representation of Lucanis' trauma (it would LITERALLY kill him to remove it), ignoring him means Lucanis is unable come to terms with what has happened.

This comes to a head when Illario kills Zara, and Lucanis is unable to stop Spite from almost murdering his brother with his own body in response. This is the final, most devastating loss of control. He apologizes to Rook for the lapse, and tries to refocus on Illario, who he now has definitive proof betrayed him. He says he is going to take everything away from him, but truly this is just another distraction; revenge is not going to be enough because it will just mean that he has nothing on which to focus his and Spite's combined ire, and then he will still have a demon inside him and no accord. What saves him is Rook, and finding out that Caterina is still alive. This is fantastic news because it means he hasn't lost everything, but it also presents a dilemma; is it more important to attack Illario, to seek revenge, even if it endangers Caterina's life? Does he risk what he values most-- his family-- to pursue his vengeance?

I was going to write an entirely separate post on the mind prison, my favorite part of Lucanis' arc, so I'll (try) to be brief here. The metaphorical Ossuary is a prison of Lucanis' fear; those he is scared he will hurt, or who will see him for what he believes he is: a demon. In order to get him out of it, Rook needs to cooperate with Spite, and confront each fear individually, breaking down their flawed presuppositions about Lucanis which are trapping him there. It is also significant that Lucanis himself is unable to articulate that he is trapped, and is even unable to ask for help; it is Spite who invites Rook in and concretizes Lucanis' emotional state. He can't get out alone. When Rook reaches Lucanis he admits that he has been avoiding his emotions but that, "It's just... so much. I don't know where to begin."

What happened to Lucanis was life-alteringly traumatic. It is unsurprising that he does not have the tools to effectively confront it. However, Rook encourages him here to begin the process by creating an agreement with Spite in the short-term. Process your trauma by breaking it down and taking it one step at a time. After this section in the game, the player can hear Lucanis converse with his friends about trying to work with Spite; about how the spirit is learning to understand the physical world, and they are no longer fighting. Again, we see that ignoring his emotions was hurting both Lucanis himself and other people, and that by moving forward, no matter how slowly, he can regain control of his life and build a new one alongside Spite, accepting the new circumstance.

When he confronts Illario for what he did and, incidentally, control over the Crows, he does not kill him. He never loses control and he and Spite work together to resist the blood magic that Illario attempts to use on them. Working through his problems with the support of his team allows Lucanis to preserve what he values-- his family, the Crows-- instead of pursuing an endless and ultimately pointless crusade of death in an attempt to avoid his problems. He makes the Crows stronger and heals himself through confronting and accepting his emotions.

PART III: I WILL GO AND SEEK ATONEMENT

Hey it's Solas! Remember how this game used to be called Dreadwolf? That was probably because he's the thematic anchor of the narrative. So, here we go. (This section is going to discuss the 'good ending' for Solas, because I don't think the others really feed into this theme much.)

Solas is the instigator of the conflict in Veilguard, and he may be an antagonistic force throughout the story, depending on how Rook chooses to deal with him. This game gives confirmation that Solas is a spirit, and so the generally established rules apply: he acts as you expect him to act, he is what you expect him to be, so the player is likely to have wildly variable experiences with him.

Throughout the game the player can encounter sections which depict his greatest regrets in his life so far; taking physical form, creating the weapon that severed the Titans' dreams, incidentally creating the Blight, accidentally sending Mythal to her death, and accidentally creating the Veil (dang, nothing goes right for this guy lol). This series of decisions led, in Solas' time, to monumental harm for countless people, and it is what has led him to his current course. He cannot stop because he is utterly trapped in his regret; these moments, though degraded, surrounded him within the Lighthouse while he planned for a decade. The Caretaker tells you that his regrets are so vicious that they are the teeth with which Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are tearing into the Crossroads. Solas is destroying something beautiful he helped build because he is unable to let go of the past.

Although you, dear reader, may have your own opinion of him, Solas is undeniably compassionate. In DAI, he will give you massive amounts of approval for simply helping out villagers and performing menial tasks that serve no greater purpose than to alleviate suffering. The amount of suffering he (mostly) unintentionally caused could do nothing but horrify and pain him. His regret is oceanic. If you decide to persuade him to your side at the end of the game, one of the reasons he cites for continuing down his destructive path is because it would dishonor those he has wronged if he were to abandon his work. He is sunk cost fallacy-ing himself into mass murder, basically.

Part of the reason that he is doing this is because, like with Lucanis' issues, the emotion, the weight of the repeated failure is almost too big to effectively reckon with. But Rook can help him do it. Throughout the game Solas watches through his avatar in the Lighthouse; he sees Rook build their team, sees them solve the problems of the people around them and find strength in unity, and so when they appear in Minrathous he does actually believe that they can solve the problem that he cannot. He is deceiving Rook when he gives them the dagger, true, but this is his most valuable asset in the fight; if he did not believe in their success, it would be extremely foolish to give it to them and to commit himself to the comparatively lesser evil of Lusacan. So, Rook has effectively proven the Power of Friendship, as it were, through their actions in Veilguard.

To achieve the 'good end' for Solas, you need to have finished Regrets of the Dreadwolf and successfully confronted the fragment of Mythal that lives in the Crossroads. She will be impressed by your work in proportion to the amount of things in the game you've finished, so you must have bonded with your companions and you must have freed the Crossroads from the ravages of Solas' regrets. He helped make the mess, but other people can help him fix it, which is essentially the point that Mythal makes to him at the end; that he's not literally solely responsible for actually every bad thing that's ever happened.

You also have to tell the Inquisitor to attempt to reach him, which will lead to them saying something about forgiving his past actions if he stops trying to destroy the Veil presently (I assume the dialogue is similar in the friendship route; I have a Solas-romancing Inquisitor and that's basically what she said. I felt that part was general enough it probably carried over). All of these people and various pieces of Solas' past and present are here to break down the gigantic wall of regret that's preventing him from doing the right thing in this moment. All of his arguments for why he must keep going are refuted by these people he cared for, and to whom his regrets are attached.

Through Rook's actions they have demonstrated their ability to solve seemingly overwhelming problems. You can help Harding tame the anger of the Titans, you can help Lucanis confront his trauma, and you can help Solas finally see past his regret and be the hero he has always wanted to be. This is obviously not the only route the player can take through the game, but if they do, they help create a narrative that repeatedly deals with deconstructing and resolving overwhelming emotion. (Dear readers, remind me to make a post about Bioware games and participatory storytelling.) The story examines how intense emotion, ignored or denied, hurts oneself and others, and presents several solutions which all begin with asking for help. There is strength in unity, in compassion and togetherness, and if you cannot see the way forward alone, you will find it with other people.

WhEw okay if you actually finished reading that give yourself a high five and take a lollipop from the basket on your way out the door

on any other platform I think I would have hit a word limit of some kind, so thanks tumblr

edits incoming? very tired rn. Think I had some other point to make about Solas that I forgot maybe. I also think I could've added some of the other companions to this (Taash and Bellara were top candidates) but imo these two are the strongest for this particular theme. And it was already so long lol

okay I sleep soon. you can lmk what you think if you want? don't be a dick tho, I hope that goes without saying lmao

[robo-milky]

Mason jar decorating! 💥💥

[cybershock24601]

Thinking about that talk with Solas after you “earn his respect” and the fact that I literally had to pause the game and get up to pace around my room when he was talking about Elgar’nan because Solas, babe, you just described yourself you prideful bastard. Solas being blinded to his own faults while also being so stuck in his own self pity is genius writing because he is so sure he knows where he’s gone wrong in his life but has such glaring blind spots when it comes to his own actions and how he mirrors Elgar’nan. I would say it’s recognition of the self through the other but that requires Solas to actually be looking in the figurative mirror.

[weareunderthesameskies]

rook is so mom friend of friend group coded. like, truely gentle parenting EXPERT

warden is eldest sibling who got thrust into shit and had to figure it out (“back in my day it was uphill BOTH WAYS. we defeated the blight with a STICK AND BEGGING PPL FOR SCRAPS”)

hawke is middle child disaster but also Master Mediator between people who wanna rip each others throats out. wise cracking at the perfect time.

inquisitor is youngest sibling who everyone is like “ohh wow u just got everything handed to u huh” but thrust into insane responsibility of uprooting systemic problems.

and rook would sit all those three down and go “you did your best, you know?? sometimes that’s all u can ask. here’s a hot cocoa. have a nap”

[rosieofcorona]

Do you think Solas went out of his way to do something that makes sure his Lavellan( and in your canon, Fenhala as well), or just a high approval Inquisitor, would survive the Veil coming down? 🤔🤔🤔

hi angel!! i very much think so.

in my lil old opinion, half the reason solas won't accept help (from lavellan or even a befriended inquisitor) as he prepares for his ritual is that he wouldn't want them to be present at a sort of proverbial ground zero when the veil is coming down. i don't think he'd want anyone he cares for to be close to tevinter, and at least in my head, he would be likely to keep very close tabs on them leading up to it. i wrote a fic a while ago (in which he and lavellan play chess) with, believe it or not, this kind of foreshadowing in mind. i picture him setting up a gambit for lavellan before the ritual, where he would offer her something that seems very valuable to her search for him- maybe he orders one of his agents to be caught, or drops a false clue as to his whereabouts, or leads her to an eluvian that would take her farther away from him- but whatever it is, it would be a red herring to distract from his true plans. and of course, we all know what happens to solas' plans, even when they're very well-laid. even if lavellan were to take the bait, it matters little when rook interferes.

[veilkeeper]

breaking the cycle

alt title: why a sunshine boy beat solas at his own game

i need need need to talk about corentin and solas. like, the rook/solas dynamic is insane, right? it's insane. you meet him knowing he's the dread wolf. despite his protests, he is a god. you know him to be deceitful, cunning, and willing to betray allies and friends alike. if you uncover his memories, you learn that he has always been like that. there is no one he will not stab in the back.

despite that, you can respect him. more astounding, you can earn his respect. you're mirrors of each other, diametrically opposed but united in a common enemy, and you are literally following in his footsteps to stop the gods. you're in his base, uniting armies and earning the loyalty of your companions with his advice. whether you're willing to admit it or not, you are carrying his mantle, at least insofar as he was the leader of a rebellion that opposed gods.

remember, whatever it takes was his refrain first.

for corentin specifically, he never trusted solas. but aside from being morally opposed to his plans, corentin didn't really have... ill intent? all he knew was that while solas had to be stopped, he and varric had once been friends. so when he meets solas, he resolves to never trust him, but maybe to listen. he's done all this before, after all, and corentin isn't going to turn down expert advice when he's this in over his head.

and he does come to like solas. genuinely. he's the most frustrating person in the world, he hates when solas gets a little condescending but the scraps of approval are like a straight injection of endorphins (not unlike how he feels around emmrich, sometimes). the greatest sin anyone can commit around corentin is to be boring, and solas is anything but. he wants to impress him. he wants to believe that even after everything, solas can change. maybe seeing corentin succeed where he hadn't will help him realize that he'd been wrong.

then he betrays corentin. sends him to a prison of regrets for weeks. trapped in a circling, desolate place that was made to hold gods. worse, corentin finds out that not only had solas killed varric, but that he'd intentionally manipulated his mind to prevent him from realizing it.

but even after all that, when corentin finally confronts solas in minrathous, he thinks maybe there's a chance. solas needs him! he can't do this by himself! he seems genuinely impressed that corentin was able to escape, and it feels like he's telling the truth when he says he regrets manipulating corentin's mind and killing varric. and corentin is... well, he wants to see the best in people. he wants to believe people can change. he wants solas to do better.

and solas lies to him. again. the veil is going to come down with the death of elgar'nan—corentin's success was always going to be his failure. from the very beginning, he had been a pawn of the dread wolf, just like elgar'nan said. at every turn, it had been manipulation and doublespeak. were solas' feelings towards corentin, the respect and the regret and the borderline fondness real? maybe.

did it matter? not anymore.

because even though everyone is telling him to try, to give solas another chance, he can't. he already has. and across all of history, thousands upon thousands of years, other people solas cared about and respected gave him chances, and he turned them down every time. and the thing about corentin, the thing that brought him this far and let him kill gods where solas could only imprison them, is that he knows when to move forward instead of stagnating.

so when the time comes, the most genuine person in the world hands a fake dagger to a god, and he offers solas a final regret to carry with him across the veil.

[bees-bees-fear]

Hey so.

The Citadel memory. Where Solas knowingly sacrifices the spirits of Disruption.

The distraction team. Leader. Was killed. In Solas' memory.

[too-many-rooks]

Yassen and the Morons he works with; Martin Wilby edition, Part One; threatening him at all opportunities! <Prev Next>

So I've been making gifs based around Yassen's connections to the people he works with, and quickly realised I'd need like three seperate posts for Wilby. But staring at these scenes so much has given me thoughts about what their interactions say about Yassen, (and tangentially, his potential connection to Ian.) Anyway rambly meta under the cut.

Although Yassen treats most of the people he works with, with a similar sort of disdain, it's pretty clear that he hates Wilby. Aside from evidently relishing threatening him with double-meaning assurances about 'taking care of him', and how Blunt might not buy the cover but 'we' (as in, SCORPIA), will be fine, Yassen's also more violent with him than other characters.

When he shoots Wilby, it's one of the few times we see him injure someone directly without immediately killing them. Yassen doesn't mess around, he shoots to kill *instantly.* When he does kill Wilby (gifs upcoming) it's one of the most intimate, visceral, and involved murders we see Yassen commit - he uses his hands in the kill in a way we don't see again.

So much of this additional complexity is in Levin's performance; there's a way he just... settles his jaw when looking away from Ian's dead boy to Wilby, transitioning from this look of regret and grief to what reads in my mind as a flash of quite visceral hatred. Is this a hypocritical resentment for his involvement in killing Ian, for allowing Yassen to kill him in the first place, a way for him to displace his guilt over killing Ian? Yassen can rationalise his own involvement as a professional, following orders; he regrets what he has to do, but it's not personal. But, contrastingly, Wilby betrays the partner that trusts him for self-centred motivations, for greed.

There’s the way his face tightens before promising to 'take care of him' that suggests a genuine desire to kill Wilby, the suggestion that Yassen might enjoy getting rid of him, once he's served his purpose.

But the summary of all this is that I don't think Yassen would have such complex emotions about Wilby if he didn't have some meaningful connection, and personal relationship, with Ian.

[the-northern-continent]

A fun headcanon is to read Solas as an on-the-clock pride spirit first, everything else second.

Provoking people into defending their heritage and choices, because even when they disagree (especially when they disagree), someone leaves the conversation more prideful than before. Cavorting around for 10 years leaving eluvians unlocked, villain monologuing, and being Generally Menacing™️ because even if he gets stopped, he’ll be stopped by people who take pride in modern Thedas. Equating contentment to death, until Varric reframes it as fighting against the world’s attempts to take it away.*

If we think of pride spirits as personally prideful, it’s a bit like viewing sloth spirits as personally slothful. It may be situationally true, but it can mask their attempts to make YOU more prideful.

*Solas is not the only one coming out of that conversation with a change in perspective; go ask the viscount of Kirkwall.