#da4 spoilers //

[corseque]

“Solavellan is a heightened, mythic romance, with the pall of a curse. Their last words are like wedding vows, and I love that it keeps the same dark myth feeling. She is marrying the god of misfortune with archdemon blood on his lips, blood on his hands.”

Alix Wilton Regan: “Amen 🙏”

Anyway so Lavellan’s voice actress responded to my description of the dialogue in the last scene between Solas and Lavellan as a wedding vows and a wedding ceremony with “Amen 🙏”

[heniareth]

I aam really really liking Neve Gallus with her "let's look at this calmly and rationally" approach to situations/emotional constipation, her sitting there trying not to look awkward while Bellara fangirls about her, her love for fried fish off a stall in the lower docks, and her thinking spot being standing in said docks, on planks one year away from rotting through, looking out at the dirty water of a harbor bc it "helps her think". She looks like the kind of woman who will get lost in theories, brilliantly solve a crime, and then crash and burn with greasy hair because she hasn't slept, eaten or showered in a good long while. She's a mood. And I think it's very important to have female characters who are the coolest and look so so good, but whom I can picture as forgetting to eat, sleep and shower, you know?

[rosieofcorona]

of course lavellan is immortal in the fade, babes. time doesn't exist there, my buddy anders told me. rook was in the fade for like one hour and two weeks had passed in the real world. modern elves are only mortal bc when solas locked them outta the fade he restricted their access to a whole different space-time continuum, and imho the only reason solas is even still immortal is bc he napped for the last thousand years in the fade and you can't age in a place where time doesn't move. lavellan's gonna live forever in there i promise

[exhausted-archivist]

This is the banter about his going rates that I referenced in another post, and I see the comments and tags. I cannot tell you how much this isn’t him being a nepo baby or the “how much could it cost” meme.

Shoving the rest under the cut because I get the joke here but I need to yell about this man.

tldr: This isn’t dialogue about Lucanis being out of touch, and not knowing what money is worth. He knows, he’s a union man. This dialogue is about Lucanis learning about Harding’s values and priorities. He was worried he was low balling Harding. The tone in this dialogue throws him because what Harding says could easily be taken as “six thousand is only this much and I deserve more compensation.” Hence why he offered to negotiate with her and also why he clarified that the comparison was good.

Now for me yelling about this man:

Lucanis is a union man. Lucanis thinks everyone should be paid fairly, equally, and the market rate. He tells Neve to unionize with the other detectives to make sure she is being compensated fairly (to make sure they all are tbh) and that no one is underpricing themselves. If they are, they’re a scab.

He tells Bellara the Veil Jumpers are providing a service and risking their lives - they should be fairly and properly compensated. They should not only unionize but charge for their services.

Now there is something to say about capitalism and such, but Lucanis is vouching for this stuff because at the end of the day money is important in Thedas. With money you can buy the supplies you need. With money you can make more impactful change, bribe people with lesser morals, provide for people who need it. Cover funerary costs, compensate the families of those who died who maybe the person working for/with you was the only money earner. With money, you can choose to help on jobs that don’t pay at all because you have the comfort of knowing you have other work to cover things.

Lucanis isn’t asking Harding if that’s good because he doesn’t understand the value of what he’s offering. He’s asking Harding if it’s good to understand what her value of it is. Money is after all just a social contract of a universally agreed to system to value the more abstract concepts of value (and even then it fails at times). For all he knows she could have been presenting those examples to show he is lowballing her.

This man is offering to negotiate with her, but her words and tone throw him so he’s not sure if she is happy with the offer or offended.

Lucanis isn’t a nepo baby who thinks 10 dollars for a banana isn’t a lot. Illiaro is the nepo baby. Lucanis was born into wealth but he knows the value of it and works hard to not only earn it but also maintain it. This man has standards, he wants the best because he can afford it so he will not accept anything less than his expensive, luxury Orlesian peaches.

Lucanis doesn’t value goats or a barn the same way Harding does. For her there is personal attachment and sentimentality (see where money fails to properly put a value on something). He knows their monetary worth of those things but he would not be pleased or excited to be paid in a herd of goats (unless perhaps if they were Ayesleigh gulabi goat). But Harding does value those things. Those things have more meaning to her than their value in gold, that’s home. That’s stability. That’s purpose and security. Giving books to the whole village? That’s enriching lives, that teaching people to read. That is uplifting people.

If you asked Lucanis to list off what 6k gold could get him? You’d see his values are different, it would be coffee, luxury food ingredients, wyvern memorabilia, daggers.

Anyways, this isn’t my blorbo but he’s the blorbo of friends I have and man is up there with Cullen, Davrin, and others. Just rotating in my brain space because people I care about like him.

Also this makes me wonder how much the Inquisition was paying Harding and if Lucanis is going to provide her with one of his lawyers like he did for Neve and Bellara.

I've seen Lucanis' family villa so I knew he was rich, but this banter made me realize that he's a rich boy who has no idea what money is worth lmao.

[miyku]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | ▶ dev. Bioware

[galedekarios]

My little brother. He thought he needed to take care of me. He called me Vora'shivan. "Hummingbird" in elven. Said it was because I could never sit still. But he loved me for it.

[sky--phantom]

When you go check on Lucanis after the almost kiss

[corseque]

AND I’LL RETURN TO MY BEAUTIFUL CITY

BLACK SKIES WILL CHANGE INTO BLUE

Sea Wolf - Dear Fellow Traveler

Dear fellow traveler Under the moon I think I’m growing weary and I’m hoping you’ll come soon

[corseque]

A version of the letter from Varric to Charter, if Lavellan romanced Solas, that was not linked correctly in the game:

And another version, if Lavellan romanced Solas but vowed to stop him by any means necessary:

[v-arbellanaris]

hrmrmrm idk that i am actually all that impressed by this incredibly simplistic explanation im getting in veilguard of the archdemons basically just being regular dragons enthralled by the evanuris. like. sorry but isnt that literally what corypheus did with his dragon. im sorry okay, i just...

okay. let me try and explain my issue with it. solas says, in trespasser, the first of my people do not die so easily. and sure, i suppose a dragon is not exactly an easy kill except for the way there's literally dragon hunters in thedas. as the warden, i killed at least three dragons including urthemiel. hawke kills at least one high dragon. as the inquisitor i kill like. eleven. so its a difficult task. but clearly not impossible? and as we see with corypheus - kill the dragon, and the main body becomes completely vulnerable and mortal again. the pride demon in the opening was harder to kill than corypheus was after his dragon died. h*cruxing the dragon is so simple j/kr could've thought of this, and i feel cheated of the like... scale of the magic and power that the evanuris commanded before the veil came up? i dont want to see magic we already thought of, i want to see how a world without the veil allows them to command magic in a completely unimaginable, unfathomable way to the way we currently can conceptualise magic at all in thedas.

i guess you could argue that it's either solas' hubris or the evanuris' pride that they thought no one else would ever figure out the secret to effective immortality but there's apparently at least 200 shards of mythal swimming around out here possessing people and shit. you cant throw a fucking rock in thedas without hitting 3 mythals. that is what i would consider not dying easily. and, if they go down the route i suspect of confirming that the ancient elves are spirits made flesh, i wish there was some kind of reference to the fade forever reflecting the desires and beliefs and dreams of people in the waking world - which is to say that, for example, simply still believing that mythal or elgar'nan or ghilan'nain still exists is enough to bring the shards of their spirit back together again - just like solas' wisdom spirit friend in dai.

my private working theory is that if the evanuris are spirits made flesh, then somehow, the creation of the veil effectively... made them tranquil, in a way. separated their mortal bodies - trapped, as mindless archdemons, slumbering in the deep roads, in the mortal coil - from their spirit selves, locked in the black city behind the veil. this would explain why he needs to move them in the first place, to a more secure prison - corypheus fucking up the veil in 9:41 reconnected the physical bodies of the evanuris to the spiritual selves trapped in the fade. idk i just feel a bit like. not to say caught out, but i feel like a lot of the lore drops are just like "whats popular fanon theory about this. lets just confirm that" and i wish there was just... something more. some attempt at surprising me or aweing me with the lore drops. like it is what you think but there is something else here you didn't think of, or it's more complicated than that - to leave some kind of mystery behind, still. but idk.

[pinacoladamatata]

i love this freckle mod so much shut up no one look at me

bonus pics under the cut

[profoundlyfaded]

Solas completing the journey to Gordon Ramsey, there.

Also encouraged Viago to hold bread to to Rook’s ears and call them an idiot sandwich.

I'm sure they just need some time.

[lithoghast]

Vorgoth Mourn Watcher

[fruk-choosing-a-username]

am I crazy or is there an extreme difference in Lucanis' face and reaction when a romanced Rook gets nabbed by Ghilan'nain vs a non-romanced Rook

not romanced:

romanced:

he looks so much more angry and upset...... and it seems the wings stay out longer, SPITE IS PISSED TOO

I'm solely going off my screenshots here, haven't actually seen the cutscene in full for a romanced playthrough in a hot minute and I may just be delusional, BUT either way I cant get over the absolute PAIN in his face

[doriansbutt]

we fuck nasty but Harding my love cmon you do not need to tell peepaw we fuck nasty……

[exhausted-archivist]

Yes. Fully agree.

Also, to add to your point about how he is in touch with reality: the man is quite literally a union man.

He tells Neve she needs to unionize. He tells Bellara he will get his lawyer to help get the veil jumpers set up to be paid for the services they perform - their deadly, life threatening services.

Lucanis knows the price of things from bananas to one’s life. He is Mr. Don’t Risk Your Life For Free and Unionize.

Also his rates are INSANE. He is a man who earned his wealth while also being born into it. He knows the good life, knows what it’s worth, and how to maintain it. He also just got out of torture prison. He is savoring the finer things in life. Yes, he could get the slightly more reasonable Rivaini banana (that is still over priced because of the occupation through out Thedas and the Antaam patrolling waters and the food shortages impacting everyone), but he can afford the finer things so he is damn well going to get that good banana.

The man specifies he needs peaches but will only get them if they’re from Orlais. He has standards, he has the means, and he wants to enjoy his life because he knows the value of it and the things he is purchasing. That is not the “how much could it cost” meme behavior.

i know i’m the one who keeps making jokes about Lucanis being financially savvy and wealthy but you have to understand. he is also IN TOUCH with reality. you can’t make the “One banana? How much could it cost, 10 gold?” joke about him because HE IS THE ONE DOING THE GROCERY SHOPPING. that joke is for rich people who have no clue how everyone else lives. If Illario asked Lucanis how expensive bananas could possibly be, Lucanis would say "well if you want the best bananas imported from Par Vollen those are quite pricy these days because of the blockades, but you can still get ones grown in Rivain more reasonably[1]”. But, crucially, he would still buy the expensive fancy bananas anyway because he knows Emmrich likes them[2] and he wants the team to eat well. And that’s what makes him mr fantasy heartthrob in addition to being a pathetic wet beast of a man[3]

[1] The World of Thedas has a surprising amount of banana lore [2] Groceries codex in DAV [3] My heart tells me this is true