#like if delilah had been telling her see they don't care about you they chose someone else you only have me kinda shit

[burning2know]

I'm sure someone already thought these thoughts at some point in the last decade. I'm on a Samson & Delilah kick in my Solavellan brainrot era. These sre just some thoughts.

The story of how my attention got turned to Samson & Delilah is in Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah lyric

"She tied you to the kitchen chair

She broke your throne and she cut your chair

and from your lips she drew a Hallelujah."

Fellow Solasmancers will know the significance of this song. But this particular bit is referencing the story of Samson and Delilah, in which Samson has superpowers that helped him become a powerful leader. His enemies wanted to thwart him but couldn't find a weakness, so they sent the seductress Delilah to weasle it out of him.

He tells her a bunch of lies, initially, like tying him to a chair or weaving his hair into the loom. At that point, he was very close to telling her the truth, because his actual weakness is getting a haircut. During their time together, Delilah tries out all of these things and discover that they don't work and Samson gets out of all of them.

Eventually, Delilah complains that Samson doesn't trust her, and that if he really loved her, he would tell her. And in an immense display of poor judgement (which is ironic given that he is one of the Judges of Israel), he tells her in confidence that the source of his power is his luscious locks. So then Delilah cuts his hair and sends him to her enemies who shave him and render him powerless.

Interestingly, the story ends with a gathering of his enemies to celebrate his execution and demise. But little did they know, (since his hair had grown back) Samson regained some strength and pushed the entire building down, taking down his enemies with him in his final act.

After this story, Delilah became known as a sexy traitor, an OG femme fatale. Even though she is never mentioned again (as far as I know). One wonders what became of her.

So here's what I think is interesting. Solas is powerful, even though ironically, he is already without hair. And he's doing what will destroy Lavellan's people, (note: not Solas's people). But from the outside looking in (or really a thousand years looking back), they're not That different, kind of like Samson's people and his enemies.

Even though Lavellan didn't seduce him with the goal of betrayal, she did make him almost betray himself, which is really the first betrayal of Samson, that he chose to tell her, he betrayed his own power. What's interesting to me is that, in the story, it's unclear if Samson knew what was happening, if he knew what Delilah's plans were to give him up to his enemies, why would he have been, apparently, falling in love with her, or at least enough to tell her the biggest secret of his life and trust her to keep it? Had he not noticed all of the shenanigans? I mean, how do you break out of the ropes without knowing what's happening? It's like how Solas is Very aware that his relationship with Lavellan may well unravel his resolve and ruin his plans. But against his better judgment he goes on the journey anyway.

So if the parallel happens all the way to the end like Samson & Delilah, we may see his undoing by Lavellan's hand in Veilguard. We may see him taking down much of thedas with him as he and his plans are foiled, in a final sacrfice for his people. That is just Devastating to me. It's such a waste (of what? of lives, effort, "human" potential?)

The Wyvern scene, to me, is like Samson telling Delilah about his hair in the loom. It's dangerously close to to his undoing, but Solas ultimately decides not to trust Lavellan. And even during Tresspasser, he is careful not to give too much away (despite basically outlining all of his plans). He chose differently than Samson.

But why? Given the hair thing, Solas is already bald. Which suggests that he's already been betrayed before and had his power taken from him. And like Samson, it grows back after a while, but he's still weaker than he was. So here we are in what seems like the middle of the journey.

The question is how closely will the ending of Solasvellan following Samson and Delilah. In my opinion, not very much.

The fun thing is that, unlike Samson and Delilah, the betrayal goes the other way. The inquisitor has superpowers, the source of which Solas knew all along. Then Solas betrays Lavellan by leaving her and then taking her source of power too. But he does NOT give her up to her enemies. Notably, he is trying hard to preserve her (and everybody else), as much as he can. But we don't hear about Delilah after Samson is subdued. At the very least, Lavellan will be mentioned again in the story and will be important in her own right even aside from Solas.

So while ruminating on the story of Samson and Delilah, though I was unsettled by the parallels, I think circumstances are different enough that Solavellan will have a different outcome.

[ahelpfulpeach]

thing I am eagerly awaiting/hoping for next ep (36)

FCG having a chat with Ashton about the whole “everything hurts all the time” thing and/or taking it upon themself to take on some of Ashton’s chronic pain and whatever fallout from that happens

Orym and Imogen having a chat about grief and Laudna and guilt and such Imogen and Keyleth ALSO having this breed of discussion

just more time for the Hells to discuss Feelings about the whole situation in general like even setting aside from the Moon Plot stuff, a very emotionally central member of the party is dead, and two of the currently alive party members died for a bit, Fearne’s parents and grandmother situation is a whole thing, FCG’s murderbot/trojan horse thing is another whole thing, as are the revelations about Dancer and whatnot, Imogen and Laudna had only just barely had the chance to make up before Laudna died, Laudna had been dealing with Delilah’s influence a lot more recently, Ashton had some Backstory Reveals that are clearly affecting them a lot, Chetney is having some weird werewolfy shit goin’ down that he has not really alerted anyone to, and I’m probably missing some more things but YEAH they mentioned they needed a good round of What the Fuck is Up with That and i AGREE

Fearne and/or Chetney shenanigans in a fancy castle

Percy makes Mister a gun

Percy Regrets making Mister a gun

the whole party contributing to Laudna’s resurrection ritual cuz they’re a FAMILY, DAMMIT

Laudna coming to in a place that’s familiar and full of such awful memories, but this time she’s surrounded by the love and devotion of her new family and she is safe

whatever the fuck Delilah may do about the everything, especially being in Whitestone

[endlesschoices9]

Book ideas

I've been feeling inspired and recently I wanted to share my Choices book ideas. Hopefully PB doesn't take it personal, I'm just trying to have some fun! The names are random and I don't have any clever book titles.

1. Circus book

MC (Delilah) works at a local circus in as a trapese artist. She was just about to get the big gig of working with another trapese artist (named Dakota) but they are bitter and uncooperative. MC tries to get on their good side and train before the big day of the first day of summer but will she make it?

MC is the type to show tough love when needed and sometimes caring to people. That's why, when she has a fight with the main LI, the new trapeze artist, she either consoles him or yells and gets angry at him (ie when they try the usual tricks but they make a mistake and get mad at MC).

When it comes to other characters, Delilah is friends with Chippy the clown, real name Stephen (another LI or gay best friend? You decide), Magician Mike, real name Michael, acrobats named Jane and Jill (Jane is engaged), Carl the lion tamer, Mary the ringmaster (LI) etc. Also the circus owner is Chad, an older man who is tough but fair when needed.

The point of the story: saving the circus. There are a few ideas that I have about the plot but I don't know if I should spoil or anything.

2. Hotel book

Won’t lie, this is inspired by the show called Hotel Grand. However, I don't want to make the same drama... Okay, maybe.

MC is the daughter/son of a hotel owner and they are a hotel manager. And when the hotel started running, we chose the name with our father!! We wake up to that dream/memory, hop to work and then we see a few friendly faces like the bartender, the sexy mechanic (LI) , our sibling working at the front desk, the maids (one of them is an LI), the cook is our mother etc.

As I was writing this, I thought of something... Why not make it a Veil Of Secrets Book 2?! Think about it!! Our MC finds the veil, the first item, and then they try to find the bride-to-be that lost it and yada yada yada.... Or maybe a different mystery and call it Hotel Of Secrets??

If that's a stupid idea then the MC will find a heart shaped necklace and on it their mother's name. In the first chapter they find out that their mother is cheating on the father with the bartender!! And then MC tries to stop the mother from possibly destroying the hotel. So, same concept as the circus one, save the hotel.

3. Gangster book

I saw a confession on playchoicesconfession about somebody mentioning a gangster book. And I liked it.

MC is a girl that joined a gang for her boyfriend, the leader, and the thrill. She loves ridding her bike and has odd colored hair. Yes, I said it. Give me more odd colored hair PB!! Green, purple, or orange again like in one of the books you used. Diamond choice for two colored hairstyles, I know you had some!!

Where was I? Oh right, the boyfriend. Yea one day they go on a nice ride somewhere in his car, he sets up a picnic and just as the MC sat on it... He tied her to a tree! And left her there! SO, once she was able to call her not-so-pathetic BFF, the MC swores of vengeance. Also, the BFF? She in another gang but their gang doesn't allow new members unless one dies or leaves. You get where I'm going with this? MC befriends her BFFs previous crew members! She makes her own gang to take revenge on her previous gang. I hope she gets to name her new gang too.

4. Thriller/Horror book

MC is a college student that gets a text from an unknown number saying she is now a part of the game called... Called... Uhhh the Bet Game? Let's call it like that for now. So the whole point of the bet game is to do anything that the text tells you to do. If you do it, you will get money or a perk of some kind. If you don't, someone in your surroundings like your family, friends or even a favorite teacher will get hurt, maybe even die.

Here's where it gets interesting. For one thing, *spoiler alert*, you find out somebody signed you up for the game. Secondly... There's two endings. A bad ending and a good one. Now the good one is about you not choosing to do a certain task like frame a teacher for a missing student and then some of your family members get hurt in the beginning. The bad ending is choosing to do all that stuff and you slowly lose your sanity and become a... crook. Doesn't have to be about murder right away, it should start with expense first. Oh and of course, depending on MCs sanity, they react differently toward a person who made them join the game in the first place.

So... That's it. Those are my ideas. Maybe somebody can continue this thread, make more ideas? I'd like to hear some! 😌