#bc it wasn’t even about her in the end!!!!

[baphometsss]

On Solas' Mythal regret

Alright so this is just one thing I wanted to get out there. I'm not gonna do one big meta post bc I wanna break down specific things more easily. I hope it's not too jumbled

Spoilers

The Solas / Mythal regret takes place in the Fade.

“What if you left the Evanuris, and remained with me? Surely you must want freedom from this struggle?”

Solas says it not just for Mythal’s sake but for his own; he is essentially begging for her to return to the Fade with him so they can be as spirits again... He doesn’t want to be a person, he never did, and now he can’t return to that life. He was happy in the Fade until she drew him out. Mythal says ‘love’ because she knows that he doesn’t want to be there and she needs to keep him loyal in order to keep the Evanuris at bay. We know that Mythal is manipulative af and this is just more evidence of that.

It’s a regret not just because he couldn’t get Mythal to leave the Evanuris but because it’s the moment he gave up on himself. He knew he couldn’t leave Mythal to do it alone, because he did care for her, but also he was likely bound to her after she pulled him from the Fade. We know that pulling spirits from the Fade makes them lose a part of themselves; in this case, Mythal did this to him deliberately so he would fight in the war.

It was a trauma bond, similar to the bond between Cole, the spirit of compassion, and the real Cole who starved to death in a prison cell. Solas needed to provide Wisdom to prove his purpose, and Mythal kept calling on that. In Veilguard, it’s explicitly stated that as a former spirit, he cannot resist appeals to his true nature. With trauma bonds, you do lose your agency. It’s what they hinge on. The two things combined make for a toxic dynamic.

(I don’t particularly like this personally, but it's what seems to be the intent, but I digress.)

The hidden codex in the Lighthouse’s music room—memories of a duet—is significant in understanding their relationship. To me this is very revealing of their dynamic; Mythal took advantage of Solas when he wasn’t used to having a body and moulded him to be a weapon. She moulded him into the image she wanted him to take, and strung him along the entire time. There’s a big parallel between Divine Justinia/Leliana and Mythal/Solas. Leliana’s personal quest in DAI is about her loyalty to Divine Justinia, whom she sees as a mother and great friend. You can ask her if they were romantically involved, and she says that they were many things to each other, but not that. She too carries a huge amount of guilt for her death, to the point that it can break her if you don’t soften her early on in the game, and she becomes utterly ruthless. The end scene with Mythal releasing Solas from her service has many similarities to Justinia releasing Leliana from hers. Leliana and Justinia were united in part because of their shared spirituality and hopes for the Chantry, and Solas and Mythal were united by the connection they forged as spirits. ‘Being wholly seen…’ Leliana felt the same way about Justinia.

Solas also wore Mythal’s vallaslin, and burned it off his face when he rebelled against the Evanuris. As we know, those are slave markings. He was made to become her servant, and rebelled against her too when he started the rebellion against the Evanuris. (As a side note, and especially if you’ve played BG3, you’ll know how the loss of agency can stick around even after the connection to the abuser has been severed. Astarion’s ‘you made me see that I never stopped thinking of myself as his slave’ really springs to mind here, albeit in a different context.)

This is a big part of why I don’t think he was romantically involved with Mythal. I believe his main role to Mythal in the initial war was as a kind of spymaster, similar to how Leliana is the spymaster for Divine Justinia. Mythal taught Solas to behave in exactly the way she wanted him to.

In fact, in the Inquisitor’s customisation screen when you pick your romance, Solas’s explicitly says that even he didn’t foresee what it would mean to fall in love. So… he canonically hasn’t been in love before. He was not in love with Mythal.

I wanna be clear here; I don’t hate Mythal as such. I mean, I do, because she’s pretty fucked up, but you have to consider her nature. She was a spirit of benevolence. She wanted to take a form because she was afraid of what Elgar’nan would do to the world if she didn’t stop him. Even after taking a body, she can’t change her nature. It became twisted into retribution when she couldn’t stop them from harming the elves or trying to leash the blight. Honestly I could write a whole essay about Mythal too, but I won’t because I still have a ton to write about Solas and Lavellan, but we’ll see.

Anyway I’m gonna leave this one here but I’ll be back with more meta. I have a lot of get through

[arcgayne]

my reasoning:

(these rankings are based on multiple criteria, such as relatability, hotness, relevance, how interesting they are as a character, and so on and so forth).

1) Jinx: she’s literally me. so silly and mentally unstable. needs therapy so bad and it shows. i fucking love her. please get help queen

2) Ekko: literally has never done anything wrong ever. moral compass strong as fuck. bonus points for looking cool. he’s also literally me but jinx wins over him bc she’s more unhinged.

3) Viktor: my fucking beloved. Do I want to be him? Do I want to be with him? Realistically I want neither of these things but unrealistically I need this man in ways even the hexcore couldn’t comprehend.

4) Mel: God I fucking love a powerful smart beautiful woman. AND she has mommy issues? she’s literally perfect. i’m rotating her in my head as we speak

5) Vi: hot tragic lesbian. almost lost points for becoming a cop but then she quit so it’s all good. for now. I have knowledge about what she ends up doing bc of the video game and I am currently choosing to ignore it in favor of the show timeline. Let me dream.

6) Sevika: hot. muscles. vodka aunt. hot. emotionally unavailable. hot. did i mention hot

7) grayson: i think it’s hilarious that she ranks higher than everyone else below her on this list. she literally only gets points for being attractive. especially her voice like ugghhh. what else can i say.

8) sky: perfect angel. so fucking smart and cool. deserves better. i need to know more about her or i will actually explode. hearing her voice made me so happy y’all have no idea

9) powder: baby. deserves the world. only ranks lower bc she doesn’t exactly “exist” anymore or whatever. justice for powder AND jinx 2025

10) caitlyn: hot. but ew cop moment. the fact that her sympathy for zaunites was crushed so easily really annoys me. like girl do you even have principles. ur revenge era would be cool if it wasn’t police brutality like noooo caitlyn pls don’t let a dictator use you to further destabilize your country for her own gain you’re so sexyyy ahaha… idk man it’s complicated. she should quit her job and get a new one. and then get therapy.

11) Jayce: he’s interesting in that he is a good example of a privileged person attempting to make things better by utilizing the system, only to get sucked into said system, becoming part of it and therefore part of the problem. the road to hell is paved with good intentions. his intentions are so good and yet. he is idiot. I hope Ekko and heimydingy are able to lessen his idiocy.

12) ambessa: hooottttttttttt. so fucking hot. goddamn. have y’all SEEN the music video for blood sweat and tears. i’m fucking FERAL. unfortunately for her, looks aren’t everything and she’s the fucking worst so here we are.

13) elora: beautiful powerful wonderful woman. need more of her. what is her life like. have she and mel ever kissed. much to think about here.

14) heimerdinger: he’s annoying and he doesn’t take the much needed time to explain why he makes the decisions he’s making... but he’s also right. which i hate because he’s annoying. but i also like that he’s annoying because it shows the very true fact that ppl who are annoying can in fact be right about things. also his heist with ekko was funny and endearing so he has that going for him. ekko carried tho ngl

15) vander: he’s cool cuz he’s a swag dad. a kind man and a protective guy. all around a great dude tbh. ranks lower because he doesn’t have any particularly interesting character traits to me.

16) finn: he looks cool as fuck but isn’t relevant and is also kind of an annoying brat. which is funny but like also bro. stop.

17) ximena: literally lost some of her fingers to frostbite to protect her baby child kid son. based. i love her.

18) cassandra: milf. the scene with the her and the gun? cool as fuck. ranks lower bc, again, not very relevant. and also dead lol

19) tobias: imma be honest idrc abt tobias at all i just didn’t want to separate him from his wife. he has enough of that in the show LOL

20) claggor: sweet boy. deserved better. i wonder what he would be like now if he’d been able to grow up.

21) silco: morally i hate this guy but he’s also a fascinating character. he’s cool as fuck and a bitch. plus he does eyeball drugs. there are so many fucked up things about this dude i can’t list them all. overall he’s a very well done character and an absolutely fantastic villain. what a piece of work.

22) benzo: just an all around good dude. ranks low bc he’s extremely irrelevant. sorry dude. if this was a morals contest he’d obv be ranked higher, but it’s not, so here we are.

23) jericho: had to look him up LOLLLL thanks for making food for vi i guess. people who make food for other people are the best. that being said he ranks low because, again, irrelevant.

24) mylo: cringe fail asshole. not ranked last bc he was a kid, so i can give him the benefit of the doubt, cuz maybe he would’ve been a better person as an adult… but also he never got to be one so oops lol get ranked low loser

25) singed: brother euughhh. i like drugs too but not THAT much. maybe give this man some backstory and i’ll care about him. as it stands rn idgaf about this guy. i rebuke thee, get AWAY

26) marcus: fucking piece of shit rat. fuck this guy. selfish coward and i hate him forever. die

Here's a fun little sorter I put together for Arcane characters! Reblog with your list!

Let the sorting commence!

[elainsgirl]

Someone said that most Elriels exist because they haven’t read the bonus chapter, which surprised me. Because theres still a ton of elriels who read the BC and still love them.

Quick story - While reading the series, I wasn’t very interested in Azriel and Elain, (probably because I was so focused on feyre and rhys, I love them so much) though I could tell there was something between them, especially when he gave her Truth-Teller. I even found myself agreeing with Feyre when she said, “Why not make them mates?”

But then, I was scrolling on ACOTAR TikTok and found out there was a bonus chapter about Azriel and Elain. I looked it up, read it, and let me tell you—I was kicking my feet and everything! I didn’t see anything bad about it. I think that’s why I didn’t know anything about “Gwynriel,” since I stopped reading after Rhys and Az finished arguing.

Then people started saying Azriel feels entitled to Elain? I’m like, what?! Where did this even come from? He was always so sweet to her throughout the books. I always thought they were a slow-burn thing, like they’d gradually develop feelings for each other. I’ve seen worse arguments, too, its crazy. How did they get that from one bonus chapter?

Like, whenever I saw scenes with Lucien and Elain, I’d always think, “That’s Azriel’s mate!” because there’s no way they aren’t mates after everything we’ve seen. Azriel was totally valid in questioning the Cauldron.

Honestly, I always thought that after this bonus chapter, the next book would focus on Azriel, Elain, and Lucien. It’s wild how much drama has started because of a bonus chapter. People take things too seriously, like just enjoy the book. No need for threats, majors, and saying messed up things to people online because of fictional characters/ships.

Hey anon 🫶 (buckle up this is long)

”most elriels exist because they haven’t read the bonus chapter” - that shouldn’t matter at all. The next main character and couple should be obvious from ACOSF itself - a bonus should not be needed to “understand” the next book. Interestingly, people who read ACOSF without the bonus come to the conclusion that elriel is endgame. Not Gwynriel. That tells you everything you need to know,

people need to remember the bonuses aren’t “known” by the entire fandom. In a hypothetical sense, if you presume Mass has 10 million readers world wide - out of that let’s say 6-7 million have read Azriel’s bonus chapter- that still leaves out a good chunk of readers. Every single reader suspects something between elriel from the books. If the next book is elriel - literally no one would be suprised. However if its Gwynriel? You have a good portion of readers in the millions that will be confused- no author would do that certainly not one that said the next character/couple was obvious.

You’re completely right, Lots of elriels love Azriels bonus chapter, we just don’t give it unnecessary significance because our ship doesn’t need the bonus. It was a nice treat that foreshadowed what was to come and the stakes at risk for elriel, gwyns power and that’s it. I know some of my elriel mutuals go back and reread the bonus often.

I agree with you in not being interested in elriel from the start - for me personally, I was rlly rooting for elucien during acomaf and then I went into acowar excited for the way Mass would handle them especially considering where they left off. I liked Elain & Lucien, whilst I didn’t care much for Az - it seemed obvious he would end up with Mor. There comes acowar and you have Feyre questioning the cauldron being wrong - finding out not all mates are right for each other (obviously that will tie in for eluciens story) and then when Feyre said, “why not make them (elriel) mates?)” I knew that was the end of Elain and Lucien. Feyre is THE main character, her observations and ponders matter so the sole fact Sjm had Feyre observe elriel constantly- how they did things for each other that they’ve never done for anyone else and then thinking negatively about Elain and Lucien (literally cringing at the thought of them) it’s obvious the direction Mass is trying to steer us readers in.

I also found out about the bonus through acotartok, so jynx. I simply didn’t care enough to read about it -and then I didn’t read the bonus out of pure pettiness. I had finished the series, knew who the next book is about, I wasn’t passionate about elriel & liked elucien enough to enjoy content about them, overall though I just wanted to move on with other books however my fyp kept on showing me ACOTAR videos and eventually I learnt about the ✨ shipwars ✨ which to 15 year old me was the most stupidest thing ever. Elriel was blatantly obvious so to see people genuinely doubting them & arguing otherwise made me realise…well to put it in a polite way, how *dim* some people act. Through these videos I learnt there was a whole ship that honest to god thought Azriel would have his book next along with Gwyn. Let me tell you anon, I was flabbergasted. Shocked. Stumped. No where in ACOSF had I noticed anything between Azriel and Gwyn, also why would Gwyn - a new character we’ve just met get a pov before THE Elain Archeron, one of the OG characters? Like if Gwyn was *that* important- wouldn’t she hVe been introduced earlier? Also I thought these books soley followed Female protagonists that would take the lead so an Az book was never in the cards for me.

Once I did learn of Azriels bonus - I still didn’t read it, as I said earlier out of pure pettiness. I found it hilarious when I’d tell gwynriels that I hadn’t read the bonus, the convos would usually go something like this,

“No elriel isn’t endgame. The shadows hide from Elain and hate her meanwhile they danced for Gwyn its clear she is Azriels mate”

“when did this happen in ACOSF?” “It happened in a bonus chapter”

“But if the shadows singing around Gwyn meant so much, wouldn’t it have been included in the book?”

“Ofc sjm wouldn’t have included it in ACOSF, she didn’t want to take the attention of Nessian!”

“but…doesn’t Sjm write Azriel and Elain blushing around each other and stuff?”

“Yeah bcs elriel will have a relationship then break up. Look, you have to read Azriel’s bonus to understand. Elriel isn’t endgame, gwynriel is”

You get the gist, however once I started making ACOTAR content I had to read the bonus to obviously understand context of things and know what im up against.

Anon, istg I can’t even begin to explain the disappointment and complete lack luster Gwyn and Azriels part was. Im not going to go into detail bcs this post is already long but honestly I was disappointed in Gwynriels for straight up lying. Till this day im still a little bitter.

When someone tells me Azriel feels entitled to Elain, I just know they’re pathetically trying to grasp at straws to make their ship and Li seem better for Elain. An entitled man doesn’t stay away, he doesn’t wait for offer & permission. You can dispute this take till you’re blue in the face but it won’t matter, when you’re in denial you don’t care about common sense. You know, I have to give it to GA/EL stans for managing to manipulate, gaslight and straight up lie to so many people, they really took hold of the narrative straight after acosf and twisted it to fit their ships and it worked so well due to elriel being majorly disliked. Let’s say, you have to eat something you really hate - but then I come along offering a “better” option, ofc you’re going to take up my offer. That’s what happened when it comes to the shipwars.

Azriel questioning the cauldron- Mirroring Feyre in acowar and it happened both times in regards to Elucien - Sjm cannot mKe it obvious that elucien are wrong mates and elriel are the correct pairing, anybody would question the cauldron In Azriel’s position- its the most sane, logical thing to do.

Same here, The next book has always been elriel, Lucien will come in when Elains bond is being explored. Then imo, I always thought Lucien would have the next novella. 4 years later and I can say im not suprised at the ship war like I once was. When you hate something- you will do anything to find a better option. But absolutely, people take this way too seriously. Anyone who is threatening real life people over made up characters love lives’ need to seek help and go outside to regenerate their brain cells. You do not need your major to understand these books. Its a little worrying you need to utilise such advance knowledge for silly little faerie romances. This is not shakespeare, or any other complex piece of literature. The foreshadowing is in your face. It’s obvious. Its cliche.

At the end of the day, we have our own preferences, foreshadowing and comprehension. It will never be deep enough to go and hurt someone’s feelings over these books or say disgusting things in hopes to rile people up.

[littlespoonevan]

had a thought this morning that Eddie could’ve broken up with Marisol in 7x05 and his 7b storyline would’ve still been the exact same 💀

[chirpsythismorning]

El being *12 hours earlier* than the Cali timeline when she arrives at Nina. Will saying ‘it’s been 9 hrs’ in the scene following his monologue in the van.

We know that at some point their timelines merged when they arrived to save her…

But we don’t know when exactly those alignments took place when they were still apart… which just makes you wonder…

[turtleblogatlast]

[ cw: death mention / family death mention / ]

Mhmm I sure love thinking of the reality where we did get more time to really know Karai and her dynamics with the bros. Losing her hit hard in the finale, but it would’ve hit much, much harder had we known Karai longer and really saw her relationships develop with everyone.

I especially would have been interested in her dynamic with Leo, as past iterations often have the two of them clash in ideals and the like while still sharing many characteristics. Two sides of the same coin, and all that. Her specifically being the bros’ Gram-Gram also adds a whole new dynamic as well.

Imagine how interesting it would be, to have Karai start off on Leo’s side for once, showing wholly just how alike the two are at their cores and bonding as family without the worry of betrayal or animosity that other iterations suffer through, only to have Karai die anyway. Their parting hug and the desperate look of horror Leo wears later on would have hit that much harder, I feel.

[banyanas]

Md finale thoughts/spoilers but I to quite like the progression of realization from ‘is the absolute solver spreading itself to have more hosts?’ to ‘oh cyn-solver isn’t spreading the virus on purpose’ to ‘cyn-solver is actively hunting down other solver drones that aren’t her own Disassembler “worker bees” (as seen with Nori’s notes in e7)’.

it makes sense that she’s hunting the others down- they’re not potential backup hosts, they’re rival “queens”, and I say that very much in the eusocial insect way. She always knew there was a possibility that another solver drone could become the new primary host as soon as she was able to possess the Unethical Test Subjects (trademarked) via sharing the Absolute Solver. Kind of a double edged blade? More eyes and hands to possess and work through by possessing them, but always with the possibility one of the “maiden queens” would win out in a physical confrontation over the metaphorical crown. (Which is exactly what happened when V and N stopped doing their murder jobs).

Anyway drones is bugs and always has been i fuckin knew it

[aalghul]

I don’t think it makes sense to assume that Jason was mocking Mia’s past. At all. The thing that got jason painted as violent back in the 80s was his anger against rapists…how does that turn into mocking a victim? and that entire story was written by winick. Do we honestly think winick intended to communicate that? The same writer who made Jason’s first kill a man who was trafficking children? Who had Jason pause in his mission of madness to make sure those kids were found by the right people so they wouldn’t be in further danger?

[akkivee]

we have three people who’ve been affected by the true hypnosis mic and two of them, nemu and kuukou, have physical items that represent their bonds, kuukou’s matching bandana and nemu’s aohitsugi bracelet

sasara’s the odd man out so i wonder if it’s smoking that represents the mcd bond????? but the fact that sasara’s trying to quit instead of already sober is striking me as strange, like the bandana and bracelet are notably missing but sasara’s is still lingering???? 🤔

[angelnumber27]

It’s so embarrassing and heartbreaking being in so much pain over losing someone while knowing they don’t give a fuck if you live or die. Your favorite person becoming a stranger is a special kind of hell.

[pennyserenade]

dana scully you didn’t stand a chance and neither did i. this was one of the top ten romantic things i have ever seen in my entire life

[claudiaeparvier]

Just finished Gildun’s side quest and I am weeping at the parallel between him and Aloy and the ever present theme of overcoming loneliness and finding true friendship.

[raiiny-bay]

it’s honestly kinda crazy to me that kel & co were literally the first OCs i ever made

[steviescrystals]

i seriously need to get a new job and start making money again asap bc i cannot keep living at home much longer it’s driving me insane

(wrote an entire essay in the tags without meaning to oops)

[thedeviljudges]

how bad is it to say you hate your mother lmao

[thedeadthree]

🎵 for Karolina!

HI HI ALYSSA I HOPE YOU ARE WELLL !!!! ty ty so much!! i have had her on the brain lately i miss her SOO much :')) <3

send me a ♫ + a character’s name and i will respond with a song that reminds me of them. send a ♫ + a ship and i will do the same.

✧ ― 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐈 -`. dua lipa.

if you're good enough you'll find a way / maybe you could cause a girl to change (her ways) / do you think about it night and day? / maybe you could be the one to make me stay