#Sola is a baffle

[v-arbellanaris]

under a readmore - pls be warned this a critical post so pls move on if you dont wanna hear it

i was so fascinated by the idea of s/olrook (since i have such specific thoughts/vibes abt the emperor and tav) as like a narrative thing of solas taking advantage of rook's pride/ego in thinking they know him better than anyone to manipulate them (which is sort of the reverse situation of what is happening between hala and solas but that's a different post), of rook's arrogance essentially in thinking the side of solas they see is the real him, that the memories they see were not manufactured in some way to generate sympathy for him - which i think mythal alludes to??? - but then i realised a chunk of s/olrook shippers actually think rook knows solas better than anyone else does and im just baffled. im sorry, even for a non-romanced inquisitor, the way he clearly unmasks around them, and thinking rook was not getting an edited version of solas, but the real solas... that's literally incomprehensible to me.

[iamthelordofcheese]

We can finally put the Solas Dawgs out talk to rest, this man just has molded toe armor

My proof under the cut for potential spoilers by cutscene circumstance, nothing explicitly shown

Another character also has molded toe armor, the toe armor is different lads

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

I'm going to be an oddball and say my favorite Inquisitor relationship is between them and Cole. It can be so gentle, kind, and touching sometimes.

[mrs-gauche]

Sooo... Looks like some new artwork for the vinyl set has been revealed! 👀👀👀

“Deluxe package features brand new, all-original artwork by DRAGON AGE concept director Ramil Sunga and lead UX artist Danny Richardson, created exclusively for this release.”

*takes deep breath*

ALRIGHT, sooo.....

The GOLDEN CITY turning BLACK???

Look at the HORNS!!! Looks familiar!!

AND noticed the BACKGROUND!!

The SUN!! The same imagery we’ve been seeing since 2020!!

Notice the TWO CIRCLES in front of the SUN??

Then look at the back of the cover art again!!

An ECLIPSE!! The MOON in front of the SUN!!

“And so the sun rose again in the sky, and shone his golden light upon the earth. Elgar'nan and Mythal, with the help of the earth and the sun, brought back to life all the wondrous things that the sun had destroyed, and they grew and thrived. And that night, when the sun had gone to sleep, Mythal gathered the glowing earth around his bed, and formed it into a sphere to be placed in the sky, a pale reflection of the sun's true glory.”

“On the first night after the sun was released Mythal created the moon.”

Notice the TREE BRANCHES!!

Visions of Mythal’s conquering over the Titans in Trespasser:

“In this place we prepare to hunt the pillars of the earth. Their workers scurry, witless, soulless. This death will be a mercy. We will make the earth blossom with their passing.”

“For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire.”

“For one moment, there is a vivid image of two overlapping spheres; unknown flowers bloom inside their centers. Then it fades.”

“Two shadowed spheres among stars”

“An Eclipse as Fen’Harel stirred”

ALSO, THIS

???????????????

....BioWare, what are you doing, how is a flippin vinyl artwork depicting all of these (potential) HUGE lore revelations?? lmaoo

[axiomsend]

Solas and Anders are very similar characters who react in very similar ways despite having vastly different backgrounds and worldviews. In this essay I will-

[vigilskept]

really interesting hearing people interpreting solas' statement to rook that it was "good to help [his] people for once" after rescuing the dalish prisoners as being genuine. i wonder if it's a worldstate thing that informs how people read it? because for my playthrough that read as a very calculated way to gain trust from rook

veilguard doesn't have a tarot card that explicitly asks you whether the inquisitor and solas' relationship was a high or low approval one. instead, for an inquisitor who didn't romance him, it seems to map the choices of saving/stopping solas onto high/low approval respectively

if, like me, you imported an inquisitor that chose to stop solas and your rook asks him later in that conversation: "what about the inquisitor? do [they] not count as a friend?" solas will deny that they were friends at all, and tell you that the inquisitor was useful, for a time. it's so callous and dismissive!!!

... and it's very in line with how he speaks to a low approval inquisitor trespasser. if the inquisitor is angry with solas about him using them, he'll dismissively tell them they should be grateful they got a castle and a position out of it! if the inquisitor confronts him about not even seeing the rest of them as people, solas essentially says "yes but thats not your fault, it was my creation of the veil that prevented you from being people"

i think there's definitely a version of solas here that could have grown to see the elves of the present as his people, especially if he was in a relationship with lavellan. solas who was close with an inquisitor of any race will confirm he does see those alive now as people, even if they aren't his people

in both cases, that requires an inquisitor showing compassion to the spirit of wisdom, treating her with the same care that they would have for any other person. this is the only way for solas to be able to see anyone as capable of full personhood other than spirits

if the inquisitor did the opposite... solas does not change his mind on this. he might have a certain level of compassion for them, but he doesn't see any of them as people, let alone his people

[coldbycrossfade]

unironically if you like astarion

zevran is like....1.0

primordial elf

lighthaired elves with (jamie lee curtis voice)Trauma my beloveds

[onewomancitadel]

I don't even understand the point of fandom bullshit that's invented and easily refuted by paying two seconds of attention to the thing you're criticising. There's plenty of stuff I have a kneejerk reaction to that I choose to ignore and subsequently don't devote any emotional energy to. If I'm actually impassioned about something and genuinely annoyed by it then it better actually be grounded in substance. If it weren't something truly objectionable then I'd be happy.

[sasquatchsightings]

Or you just wildly misinterpreted the line.

What’s more likely: an entire team of writers just forgot the entire intro to their game after years of work, even while watching playtesters? Or Solas’s goal wasn’t ending mortality, since clearly getting rid of the Veil wouldn’t give humans, dwarves, or Qunari immortality, and we already know he doesn’t see modern elves as people either, so they likely aren’t getting immortality whilst being killed by demons either.

He has always seen the Veil, a literal segregation of magic and non-magic, of physical and spiritual, as being an inherently “wrong” way for the world to exist, but it was done as an act of desperation, one which he deeply regrets and wants to change. He is looking at the much larger picture: the state of what world’s being, not the petty lives and squabbles of those who inhabit it.

“That is what they do” is in reference to the fact that he has seen countless people struggle, suffer, and die for a plethora of reasons over the centuries, so he cannot dwell on the deaths happening now - they are just a few more grains of sand being added to the pile that has amassed. In his memories, you see the parallels to how he had to harden himself and accept mass casualties when at war for the sake of the “bigger picture.” That’s his tragic flaw - his perspective is always focused on the bigger picture in spite of the suffering it causes. He knows it’s a tragedy that so many are dying and going to die, but he sees it as a lesser tragedy than that of a world where magic is not pervasive and where spirits cannot commune together. And so he has to be dismissive of those dying - “that is what they do.”

He might as well have looked at the camera and started referencing Hamlet - their lives are but walking shadows, players who strut and fret an hour upon the stage, lives filled with sound and fury but which have no real significance.

He is thinking and acting like a god, though he protests against the label and the accusation. He is a god who resisted the tyranny which godhood’s power incentivizes, and has since been inflicted by centuries of mortal perspectives, and that tension is resolved based on Rook’s actions.

Varric: People are dying!!

Solas, who invented people being able to die and is currently trying to uninvent that: Yeah, man. Glad we can agree on this.

[vaguely-concerned]

I was going to have rye maaaybe start to buy into solas' whole johnny silverhand deal a little bit more in the post-weisshaupt talk -- to Progress the Arc tm/set up the beginning softening in that relationship and heighten the effect when it eventually goes. quite another way entirely -- but the sheer spectacular cruelty in hindsight of 'at least you still have varric to talk to' is such that considering where I'm intending to end up with this narratively, the stoic 'not here to make friends you fucker gimme your intel' option is simply irresistible. gotta have that echo rattling around rye's head forever when he decides that you know what? I have had enough of being nice, actually. I do want to go ape shit. someone hold my coat for me please I have some work to do and I don't want to stain it. guess for now the ol' watcher training & instincts are still kicking in enough for them to treat solas like a tricky spirit you should treat with respect and good intentions, but also shouldn't be out there offering little fingers to unless you have a whole arm lying around to spare haha

[tempestclerics]

hhhhh feeling normal about the death i gave him

[lizzybeeee]

Cassandra (10 years later):

Cassandra: Perhaps the archdemons are pets for beings who no longer exist!

Solas: Whaaaat???? No that’s crazy?? Don’t be so crazy, Cassandra. Wild idea.

[shewolfofvilnius]

Most of the controversy around Taash will go away. Most of the complaints about tone / 'Rook is too nice' will eventually fade. Folks will come to appreciate many aspects of the story being told.

But heavens help me, I think Bioware is going to regret the "Your choices don't matter / to hell with your world states / all we care about is 'did your Inquisitor fuck Solas / we're razing Southern Thedas anyway in letters from the Inquisitor" until the end of time and I think it's THE criticism of this game that will endure past all others.

It fundamentally alters the DNA and perception of the franchise and studio for the worse, and it will baffle me until the end of time that they did it.

[vigilskept]

the ‘he would not fucking say that’ of it all was getting to me in veilguard, so i am once again back in dai. deeply comforting to have sander being awful once again 🫶

[sky-fire-forever]

It's baffling to me how differently Solas and Anders are treated by the narrative and the writers

Both commit acts of incredible devastation that kill people in the hopes of bringing forth a better world.

But Solas is often depicted as sympathetic, as caring about people despite what he's trying to do and the writers seem to want us to empathize with him

And yet Anders is demonized at every turn and is talked about like he just Went Crazy. Even the way Varric talks about them is very different