#but AYE. the victim blaming whenever solas is the perpetrator is CRAZYYYYY.

[sacredashes]

in inquisition, solas mirrors the inquisitor. if an inquisitor is an evil asshole, he'll give up on mortals and not offer much of a kind word in trespasser. "they offended me," he says about the qunari he wipes out with zero hassle. for a kinder inquisitor, he'll offer an apology for his actions. he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, he just has to. in that timeline the inquisitor is able to at least crack solas' wall a little.

in veilguard, i don't think solas mirrors rook. ROOK mirrors SOLAS. even an asshole rook is a rebel, someone fighting against the evanuris. and it's not like solas can judge someone's methods given the time HE stood where rook stood, he destroyed the entire world.

this is what allows solas to even build the regret prison that will house rook. he KNOWS how rook works because he IS, or perhaps better to say WAS, rook. that knowledge allows him to groom rook into taking such a high position, only to then push them off the ledge and leave them in the fade.

you especially can see this after weisshaupt. express fear and sadness, SUDDENLY he’s a calm father figure, patting you on the back for a job well done. play at being stern and he’ll compliment what a great leader you are. at least you have varric to talk to, right?

to describe it best, for the inquisitor, almost everything is an accident. he planned for corypheus to die and for himself to have the mark. he had zero plan for some random person to walk in and take it, which is why solas pokes and prods and seeks to understand before he makes any big moves. he doesn’t actually mean to break an inquisitor’s heart, or to make a new enemy.

then you get to rook and from the word go he’s actively manipulating and lying to them. immediately he knows to hide varric’s death because solas can’t afford to waste time consoling rook. immediately he tells rook to go and fight the evanuris in his place. immediately he plans to swap with rook and leave rook in the fade. every action is deliberate. even if he grows to respect rook, the end result is always the same.

this is why i absolutely despise any post or analysis that goes “oh if only rook was nice to solas, solas wouldn’t go down such a dark path in the bad endings.” solas was going down it no matter what rook did. i played a rook that was nothing but sweet and patient with solas, and he stabbed me in the back anyways. i played a rook that didn’t care about him in the slightest, he still stabbed me. even if you choose not to fight him (WHICH ASKS A LOT OF ROOK), solas was going to open the veil if morrigan hadn’t flown in.

if your rook was kind and forgiving the whole way, but decided to fight solas at the end given the last time someone tried to talk him down solas KILLED them, does that mean rook was wrong, that this is what pushed SOLAS to a dark path? is SOLAS not responsible for his own actions and for how much he's hurt rook? rook isn't allowed to be upset about ANYTHING solas did to them? i just don't think so.

it doesn’t matter what rook does, from the first meeting solas knew what he was going to do to them. at least with the inquisitor, it wasn’t on purpose.