#ichareply

[icharchivist]

Seeing people make fun of Solas for being so into the Fade always made me sad as an autistic person, because by god can I relate, but it feels extra bad since the Veilguard reveals.

god same

i also can relate a lot to it. i think i swing more on the ADHD side but i'm technically not diagnosticed with that, i have hyperfixation and bad cptsd though due to many things including neglect and trauma from bullying, so the whole idea to make fun of someone for being into something they like just makes me so infinitely sad and makes me feel alienated as well. Like even without the Reveals, the man is just happy to talk about something he likes. what's so bad with that. And he rarely does so without being prompted and/or because he faces something that excites him. That's just cruel to me to hold it against him.

(there's also how sometimes people make fun of the fact Solas and Cole get along so well in game like leave them aloooone they understand each other at least!!)

After the Reveals however this is even worse. Like i was rereading his banters the other day and like, there's one where Bull makes fun of the Fade and then adds that demons are not people like, almost verbatum, and Solas gets so annoyed and sends it back at him "wouldn't people also say the same about the Qunari" and that gets Bull upset. And i'm just.. bro... you insulted him as a person over his own nature first....

Like he goes from hyperfixating nerd who really wants to share what he loves, from literally the last remaining person who truly knows what was lost from the disconnection to the Fade -- one of the last "spirit made corporal", the one who still see spirits and the awakening world, and is trying to reunite the two, and in a way i feel like it's... almost like he's trying to act as an ambassador for spirits. Like the way he talks about them in DAI where everyone also kinda come representing their "faction"/"background", he feels like he's begging you to consider how spirits feel, and he'll assume what you think of spirits is also directed at him too.

and it just... feels so bad.

I keep thinking about the banter where Dorian says "since you love spirit so much why don't you bind them, we love binding spirits back home" and Solas gets so cold and it's like. my god Dorian. King of putting both his feet in his mouth at the same time.

guuuhh. Poor guy

[icharchivist]

haha if we're all solasposting i always thought of the "indomitable focus" line meaning that he wanted to not necessarily "dominate" lavellan. but more like, see her entire focus get drawn into one thing, or be very distracted. you know.

I was ACTUALLy replying that to Shades too!! it's a bonker line out of context in general and it drives me insane, because the mind Goes There, but it feels so.... Like i struggle to believe Solas genuinely wants to dominate her. I know sometimes people have kinks that contradict their deepest beliefs because kinks are make-beliefs and they exist into specific context where ideally it's scripted and in a context where both parties agreed to it and all

but Solas has such a strong moral principle over Freedom For Every Being, being a breaker of chains and bondage, and especially trying so hard to not be like Elgar'nan (who WOULD be into being a daddy dom, you know it.) that i don't actually see him being into bondage? personally?

But yeah therefore i think there's more to it in the sense of. As someone who mostly freed people who were dominated there's this fascination with seeing someone who doesn't look so. And what type of things could bring down such a person? Isn't it fascinating to think about? What is the breaking point of someone who is unbreakable? Maybe at this point he's thinking about it more like a curiosity, still distant enough that it can be something to analyse with emotional distance (that he would NOT want once he's madly in love).

Or, exactly what you say. Wanting to see more facets of her in that way and everything.

sO i do think that it's not exactly that sexual when he says it, but my god what a thing to say as a first flirt.

So yeah. 🤝

[icharchivist]

About the lavi/Allen ship after resent development do you think it actually has a chance with how it’s looking like soulmates like do you think it can be taken as romantic now what kind of development do you see happening now do you think their relationship can grow in a good way from here I saw in past posts you think it be one sided do you still think that

oh boy HI!

Well you got me i genuinely don't know.

And i rambled again

I don't actually expect ships going canon in shounen in general, but Past!Laven really went straight into reproducing Current!Yulma and we know Yulma is canon, so this is definitely Something.

I did always say that i thought if romantic, it was fully one sided from Lavi's side. Lavi's changes around Allen are more extreme and obvious, while Allen's behavior around Lavi doesn't really sound so different from his behavior around everyone else except that, i would argue, he looked more comfortable around him to be doing childish things. Something i already thought was me pulling at straws until recent developments.

While i'm totally thrilled about the confirmation they're soulmates (in a neutral sense of the term, not every soulmates are romantic in nature, but their souls are clearly intertwined by the way Past!Allen and Past!Lavi merged and it's safe to say that it involves platonic affection at least.) i genuinely don't know where to go on from that point. I'm still on that high a little to be honest.

I don't even know if Past!Laven is really "canon" by romantic metric considering we know Past!Lavi stuck around also due to his promise to Nea, but it's clear, imo, that there's meant to be a parallel between Past!Lavi and Current!Lavi about "we started staying with Allen because of our sworn duties but our affection for him grew to the point of being torn between duty and caring for him". After all Past!Laven traveled together for a long time, as evidenced by the fact their first interaction has Allen with short hair and that Apocryphos attacks him after they've been travelling together when Allen has waaaay longer hair.

It will depend on how Allen will take the reveals imo and i can't predict the kid when it comes to unveiling his identities. I think there's potential for him to feel extremely emotional about it since one of the only things he remembered in his present life, that Apocryphos couldn't take away from him, was how Past!Lavi held him so warmly. And like. the whole reason he took the potion that would kill him so readily was specifically to "take back what was taken away from him" when he realized the only thing he remembered was this precious.

I think this could push Allen to really want to at least clear things up with Lavi, and perhaps even properly lower his walls around him.

However.

The situation IS different from Yulma. Kanda and Alma both remembered enough their past lives, AND spend a whole lot of time ALSO developing feelings because fully remembering them, to know once the reveal was out that they were meant to find each others over and over and be in love in the past and the future.

but with Laven, while Allen is learning about it, Lavi knows absolutely fuck-all.

The dynamic is going to be SO different because what Lavi feels for Allen (platonic, romantic, whatever you want to call it) is due to who Allen is now, while Allen is going to learn a lot more about Past!Lavi to influence his opinion. On top of that Lavi also is somewhat "guided" by this vision of Past!Lavi that drive him to Allen.

There's a gap in knowledge and one that i think may be too nebulous for feelings to return just on the idea that now there is more knowledge.

One that will only be made worse by the others elements of the main plot right about now:

-Allen is going to learn that Mana's corpse isn't in its grave and its likely going to derail his feelings.. or on the contrary, amplify them realizing that even the one person who raised him and loved him didn't even die (and he carried this guilt his whole life and all the horrors that happened after that) so it could make him want to seek out this "past warmth" again. Or it will destroy him first and we'll have to deal with that.

-Lavi is still being tortured and it's been months in universe. Fiddle draws Lavi with a broken heart in a doodle he made in a recent chapter which implies Lavi' condition is pretty bad.. I think when we will find Lavi back he will be in no condition to process the whole soulmate situation

... That said he IS being tortured because the Noah want to learn about what happened to Past!JR (and i'm just realizing the fucking irony right here on Allen, being called "Mister Host" atm by the Bookman Clan, aka being held because of his condition as an Honorary Noah, being put into a deadly situation to recover information about Past!JR, while Lavi is being tortured by the Noah because they want Bookman information on Past!JR and Nea. The parallels never stop paralleling.). So Lavi wanting to learn more about Past!JR is on the table, and i wonder what plotline could come off from realizing he spent 3 months tortured because of the very figure that saved his life when he was 7.

And actually now i'm thinking about how Allen and Lavi were separated during the Alma arc and following it, were both held captive, before being hurt by a shadow of their common past lives: the Noah on Lavi while Allen is hunted by Apocryphos. Almost as if Apo had to wait until Lavi was far away from Allen to hope to attack him in case the Bookman JR meddles with his plans again. I mean i don't think it's exactly the reason but imagine if this is true?!

So actually maybe Lavi will want to learn about JR but this will probably be more confusing for them to process. I think it will be harder for them to understand how intertwined they are.

When compared to Kanda for instance he knew he had to be looking for his soulmate his whole life, he knew he had someone he loved and wanted back at all cost, so when Alma was revealed to be just that it was just a question of "finally, my lifelong quest, finishing where it started".

but neither Lavi nor Allen were really looking for this past connection so i think it'd take them a while to really process how intertwined they are and they may return to their normal dynamic afterward.

However i do think they will behave a bit differently realizing just how much they share.

As a romantic, my favorite option would be for them to not actually let their past lives dictate how they should feel about each others, but as they are working together to unravel the past and realize they have to do it together because both are concerned, they are lowering their walls in ways they haven't around others people because it just feels right, and it's where something more natural can bloom.

As a realist, I honestly don't even believe it would take a romantic turn because usually Shounen rarely do this type of things. But Hoshino is unpredictable so maybe things could take a turn. I just can't dare to hope.

(would i even want it? I don't know. I never considered it a possibility. Again i thought it was one sided. I also always have thought "Dear Gray Man" could be because it's Lavi keeping records of Allen's life because Allen isn't going to make it but Lavi will, so the one-sided-ness added to the tragedy, but now i'm so distraught on what that could mean. Hell now i also have thoughts about how this can be also reminiscent of Past!Lavi's approach. I mean i have many different ideas on what the title is about but it is one of them yaknow.)

So i genuinely have no idea where this could possibly be taken. I didn't even think it was ever possible that my "fav ship but it's probably one sided" would ever just reveal they were soulmates all along. I don't know how to process this information and how much romance i can interpret out of it exactly.

So i do what i do best instead and look for Narrative Parallels and Foils because at least there i have content.

but as to predict the future and especially a romantic relationship in a Shounen?

I have no clue where we're going.

My only hope is that it will be the story Hoshino really wants to tell.

thanks for the ask! <3

[icharchivist]

Would you like to be one of Solas's agents?

LET ME BE ONE OF HIS AGENT I BEG YOUUUUU DA I BEG YOUUUUUUU

spying on people, kicking ass, freeing slaves, destroying that fucking Veil??? where do i sign!!!!

[icharchivist]

Nobody does all the different flavors of yuri like Granblue

GENUINELYYY

do you want knightly yuri with a bit of yandere and past life's reincarnated soulmates, with pure, unlimited devotion to one another? (Vira/Katalina)

do you want school friends to "actually we realized we were fully comphet" to "you're my everything and i'll cheer for you through anything and challenge the narrative itself for you"? (Meg/Mari)

do you want a completely fucked up story of childhood friends to enemies to lovers and realizing they're in love with each others and sloppily making out with each other while still covered in each other's blood? (Cupitan/Tristette)

and that's for the undeniably canon ones (Vira has always been opened about her romantic feelings for Katalina and Katalina has been returning them in recent content and said she can't live without her, Meg and Mari constantly tell each other they love each other and are engaged, and Cupitan and Tris kissed sloppily after the most fucked up love declaration ever)

but even if we count only the "it's hinted very strongly but nothing was too explicit yet"

school friends became everything to each other? (Anne/Grea)

"I have never seen anything more beautiful in the skies than Europa" and "bringing Gabriel joy is the only thing that matters to me"? (Europa/Gabriel)

"I would like to spend my whole life with you, if you allow it" "of course i do" who also take care of three children together? (Societte/Yuel)

"If you are a monster then i'll become a monster too so i can always stay by your side and you'll never be alone" and "i don't care if i'm a monster to everyone's eyes but yours"? (Tweyen/Silva)

whatever the HELL is going on in that Enyo/Athena art?

and that's for what i can think of. We have so many more. But those stick out.

We're well fed.

[icharchivist]

Oh man I had no idea there was so much drama surrounding the Belial cosplayer

There was this whole thing a few fes back about his agency specifically forbidding him to continue playing Belial because he got so popular from the cosplay shows his agency thought it would overshadow his actual work as an idol/actor, so the agency had to put up a disclaimer online that Kazuya would never play Belial again.

this was the situation a few months ago!

but now there's full on conspiracy theory because there was a new Belial last show, no one knows who is the cosplayer aside that he looks a lot like Kazuya (but like, fair right? they're cosplaying the same character) and now apparently Kazuya's agency throwing a fit because Kazuya might have gone to the Fes as an actor without being allowed to

so obviously, all of us, confused, trying to make sense of what the fuck that means.

[icharchivist]

Solas 🤝 Belial

this is very difficult for me to admit, but, well, if the shoe fits, well.

there are Similarities. this is a problem. with me.

[icharchivist]

Would his bald head sparkle when wet?

what if it does. He shines so brightly to me that i wouldn't even see the difference

[icharchivist]

What do you think Solas should have done to Rook?

I dont think he should have DONE anything per se, but he should have cut much more into Rook's actions and be much more critical of the way Rook was doing things.

Solas is passive aggressive and alright aggressive in the beginning until Rook reports what happened once the Evanuris were freed and then he appropriately judges that the situation is too serious and he better manipulates/works with Rook if he intends on getting through it.

And then he's cooperative which i'm fine with if there were actual options where he could eventually cut deeper at Rook, but even there as manipulation goes, that's fine i get it.

what irks me is once Solas is all about praising Rook when Rook barely did anything to deserve it and then is all "when i see your team.. turns out i was wrong about you 🥰" because the game really wants you to feel like the difference between you and Solas is that YOU are not a friendless loser who can't rely on people and Solas admires that, but I genuinely find it so artificial and it comes along with how they made the companions so innoffensive as characters because my god was i expecting Solas to hate Emmrich at first like hello!!! some bite here please!!! where is the Solas who massacrated a bunch of Mortalitarsi! yeah Emmrich is a "Good" spirit binder, sorry, talker, but like. GUHHHH. opportunities wasted.

And then when he betrays Rook and tells them it's all their fault and all and how "i made you to be someone the regret prison will take" and it's all about Rook failing to stop people from sacrificing themselves for them, and actually if Solas wanted to lock Rook in the regret prison he should have gone way harder on "btw remember YOU started it. YOU triggered the Double Blight. The South of Thedas is gone BECAUSE of you." But it's never brought up because we can't have Rook feel bad for things they did, so instead it gets focused on "people sacrificed themselves for you, must feel bad!" so Rook can just heartlessly go "i have no regret because they made their choices!" cool dipshit you still triggered the double blight, any thoughts about that. Thoughts about the city you've given up on?

I played a Shadow Dragon Rook, but i saved Treviso, the guilt i felt coming back to Minrathous after letting it be destroyed for only Tarquin to insult me and everyone else coddling me, especially Neve who had every right to tear into me about it, and the fact that then when I came back to Minrathous to see all the Shadow Dragons who were killed BECAUSE OF MY CHOICE, my FRIENDS, people my character IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW -- and this choice doesn't play in the Regret Prison? Not even a little Solas' "you gave up on your own people"???? What is the point if even when i deliberately pick something shady that should have haunted my character (because I WANTED MY CHARACTER TO BE FULL OF GUILT and wanted to optimize that!!!) if Solas doesn't even tell me i fucked up for that?!

And then once you free yourself from this joke of a prison Solas finds you again and is all smile like "awww :) okay my bad for the last betrayal, let's be friend again *starts to manipulate Rook again*" and like, iconic of him, really, also i think it's so telling that he knows he can't trust Rook and has to manipulate his way out of it (because Rook would not have helped otherwise, i'm afraid Solas was right on the money here), but i think he should have been meaner.

And even in the Redeem ending i think Solas should have had some bite about how Rook is legit telling him to stop everything he sacrificed everything for.

ALSO the fact Solas never comments on the fact Rook basically unearthed the biggest tragedies of his life only to have a roundtable going "wow fuck Solas for letting himself be manipulated, i would have just said no" or "oh so he didn't care about people, only about one woman, what a loser <3", like, i genuinely think Solas would have been allowed to maul and bite after all the shit they said during his regrets. But nooo Rook only gets to be the judgemental asshole here.

I expected at least a GLIMPSe to the pure cuntery that is Solas cutting down on an Inquisitor he dislikes in Trespasser. Or the way he talks to Elgar'nan in THIS VERY GAME. OR THIS.

OR THIS

Like Solas should have been meaner!!! Rook barely asks questions! Rook is constantly telling him "huh actually ☝️ you're the God of Lies, or so people say, so i shouldn't believe you" and he doesn't like people who believe things just because they were "told so". I get he needed to work alongside Rook, but my god, snap a little. You deserve it.

And they also should have just given more opportunity for it to happen. Because i think it would have just been more satisfying to have a Rook that somehow earn Solas' respect that he WOULDNT snap at you. But in the end he doesn't treat you any differently so what's the point. You didn't earn anything you narrative's favorite child. why bother putting energy in trying to find the better path when the game won't let you stray away from being the hero who saved the statusquo.

Team Solas should be meaner!!!!!

[icharchivist]

Noro here! As some people may remember, I used to translate interviews and side-material for dgm here on tumblr (do check it out, it still exists and it's fun information!). Anyway, the matter at hand. As Icha here knows (and people who read us at the time may remember), I was always bothered by the wording on the lore dump at the very first page of the manga. It goes like this "エクソシスト・・・それは神に魅入られた者達." The problem here? That 魅入られた there has two main meanings: "to be charmed by" (which doesn't quite make sense, as it would mean "people charmed by God") and... "to be possessed" as in demonic possession. "People (demonically) possessed by God." Let's say it all makes sense now, you're welcome.

HEY EVERYONE, @norowareshimono here in my inbox!!! (she lost access to her account but we're still in contact and she wanted to make sure those new infos fell through)

AND. YEAH. YEAH!!!!

the innocence is said to possess people (demonically) in the manga in early chapters, which made very little sense at the time, but now take a whole lot of sense in light of the latest chapters.

thank you so much for bringing it to our attention Noro! i think we'll still be insane over this because wow.

[icharchivist]

yeesh looking back to old files sure hurts sometimes

[icharchivist]

(I would put his face there myself but I'm much too drained by gw rn to do that) You really can't stop finding him everywhere, huh?

I WANTED TO MAKE THIS MEME ONCE. YOU'RE SO RIGHT

here finishing it up for you, thank you

but, yes, pretty much. it's one thing when /I/ just go "omg like Solas dragon age", it's another when his name just pop up in my gbf kit.

im going to cry.

I really do find him everywhere. My love.

[icharchivist]

Belial may have gotten nerfed but he still has his silver tongue

https://x.com/wahoosandalphon/status/1894592521763766407

(link)

GEEZ. THAT'S QUITE THE LINE RIGHT HERE. love it.

[icharchivist]

thinking about how the april fools raid boss is called sack subduer

thats what they call me as well

[icharchivist]

Don't say it like thaaatt

I don't remember what the conversation was about but I know he took my hand at some point and put it on the exposed part of his chest, above the heart I guess and that startled me so much that I woke up -

That yukata will be the death of me

Why is it cut like that

you know i'm right!!!!

I SEE. I SEE???????

"he made me touch his heart, the fact his tits are on the way isn't my fault"

this is so fucking funny. It's cut like that just for you, obviously.

congratulation on the date <333

[icharchivist]

No price is too great for daddy, so jot that down

Also it's only 10 k yen, that's manageable compared to his figurine

Ohmygod

The opposite of a sugar daddy. You spend money to spend time with daddy.

But the perspective does help. He is cheaper than the figurine so, worth it?