#or solas was controlling him

[vaguely-concerned]

My two cents on how much of Mind!Varric is Rook’s mind trying to fill the blank space and how much is Solas actively talking through a convenient blood magic paper doll of the mind: I think it's a mix of both, a truly collaborative psychosocial horrorshow if you would, but waaaay more towards the second. It feels too directed and tactical at times to be anything else. Rook's mind is willing to go along with the denial phase as far as it can fucking carry them to not have to face the grief and regret and does its part in papering over details that don’t make any sense, the way brains will strive to create coherent meaning even out of deeply confusing input, but to my understanding it's a collaborateur in how that plays out, not the instigator or control center. Solas is using it as a path to agency and to gather insight into Rook as a person unguarded as he can't count on in his own guise. (That stoic option that leads to him being like 'oh I see you're cautiously denying me access to your inner life. well. at least you still have Varric to talk to. y'know as an outlet :)'. You absolute BITCH Solas! That alone convinced me that he HAS to have an active hand in it on some level.)

My guess is that it takes considerable effort on Solas’ part to make Mind!Varric do anything more involved or complicated than seeming to sit up in bed and give casual commentary, and that’s why he keeps having eerie five minute shallow pep talks with you before he announces he conveniently needs a nap aaanyway good luck kid you got this haha. When he’s just spouting NPC lines from his bedrest, I’m ready to believe that could be Rook’s mind being allowed to improv lines for him more freely because it’s less about Solas trying to get something out of them or working an angle and more ‘Still here! Still totally alive and fine and the mentor figure you know and love and trust :) don’t even worry about it! Thankfully there is no war in Ba Sing Sei, as we all know’ upkeep work lol. Rook’s mind is allowed to set the tone of Varric, the outlines, but not always the content. 

AND, on a (beautifully fucked up) character psychology level, I feel like Solas is indulging in actually getting to be the good supportive mentor figure to Rook with one hand to assuage the guilt he feels about what he's done -- and what he's going to do -- to them with the other. Same internal logic as he uses in Trespasser about the Qun. ‘Almost everyone is going to die from the course of action I’m doggedly pursuing eventually. But at least I can make their last years happier and freer and kinder than they would have been otherwise. and that kind of makes up for it right. a little bit. doesn't it. doesn't that make it better at least. I need that to make it better)'. Did I really take your beloved mentor and friend from you if you don’t know yet that I did? Some philosophers would argue not really! So it’s probably almost ok actually. Isn’t it even a little noble that I’m taking all this grief and guilt on myself and shielding you for now. With undertones that I’m not sure he would realize himself (and might be mortified by if he did) that he is so incredibly lonely, and even a dishonest and indirect emotional connection is more than nothing when you’re that desperate. In this setup he gets idk. Both the control he craves so incredibly badly in relationships and over himself, and the scraps, the fading afterimages, of intimacy and warmth and companionship, even second hand. The one thing Solas and Rook agree on deep deep down is that they really wish Varric weren't gone. They're handshake memeing this in the saddest and most creepy way possible.

I think an important element too is that Solas needs Rook and their team to *succeed* —  up to a certain point. He needs someone to hold the two other elven mean girls off until he can get out of here. Ideally, in a perfect world, even do all the hard work of killing them so he can swoop in at the end and do his thing when both sides are exhausted and out of resources to stop him, and then Bob’s your uncle! Same logic as he was using with Corypheus, and after that worked out so well, too! King of choosing to never learn from a single solitary mistake he’s ever made even though i fully believe he could have the capacity to Fen’Harel <3 The underlying idea isn’t flawed, you see, it was just unforeseen circumstances getting in the way. This time for sure it’ll all work out the way I cleverly imagined it in my head beforehand. Cue By Talos this can’t be happening etc. in the form of a statue almost crushing him like a bug. 

So he's providing guidance and forging Rook into a leader from two angles: one Rook might not trust, and one they probably will. Shaping them into what he needs slowly and carefully. He’s helping you hone your team into their most effective state, as he might have done with his own agents back in the day, setting up his chess pieces even if he has to squint through two glimpsed realities to do it haha. Pincer maneuver of an insidious stealth mentor you never asked for. Also… at one point mind Varric gives you a whole little monologue about how Solas' problem is that he’s always seen his interpersonal connections as flaws and see where it’s landed him, all alone and the worst part? it hasn’t even worked. it’s all been for nothing he’s back where he began with nothing to show for it but his mistakes. Like...that has such strong 'uh okay happy to play your therapist from two rooms away here what the fuck kind of traumadump is this' energy to me, I’m not sure Rook like. Thinks that much about Solas as a private person. So much of Solas' self-loathing and futile insights into his own flaws seem to shine through in Mind!Varric's dialogue all the time — I just can't believe that there's no guiding hand behind it as it were. 

Most of all. I feel like people underestimate the degree to which Solas is incredibly funny. As in, he has a very consistent and recognizable sense of humour. It’s one of my very favourite things about him. We must remember — it is crucial that we always keep in mind — Orlesian accent and wig Solas from May The Dread Wolf Take You (my beloved, the explanation for why I love this dude even with the. All of the everything else. No one does it quite like him). He is not at all above doing things or adding little flourishes for his own obscure amusement, in fact that seems to me to be one of his most consistent traits. The Randy Dowager Quarterly comment Varric has? The ‘Maybe this is the Dread Wolf’s revenge. Forcing us to house sit for him’ thing? To Me this is 100% Solas amusing himself in his boring Fade jail surrounded by the screaming hellscape of all his regrets. Source: it came to me as divine revelation through pure vibes trust me bro 

If nothing else I find it much more narratively interesting personally if the connection between Rook and Solas really is that defenselessly intimate and entwined (and so unbalanced!), and the sense of violation and invasion and betrayal afterwards consequently all the more nauseatingly intense. Even if you kept him at arm’s length in the open, he’s been under your skin the whole time, looking around, gathering what he needs to destroy you, wearing the face of a friend. Regretfully, probably, but choosing to do it every step of the way anyway. (Sound familiar, Inquisitor? Solas doesn’t have that many tricks when you actually look at it, he keeps returning to old tried and true ones like a dog with a bone haha.) Maybe he even genuinely meant some of it as mercy, which only makes it so much worse. It makes his sin against his own core principles of autonomy and the freedom of all beings in mind, spirit and body so much more juicily grave if it’s something he pursues actively and consistently, rather than it half-falling into his lap as a happy accident mainly orchestrated by Rook’s own subconscious. Solas, too, is at his very lowest point, the closest to giving in and becoming his own antithesis fully that he’s ever been, and it makes the choice of whether you still reach out your hand to him one last time or not all the more impactful and difficult.

[corseque]

(spoilers) All the times Solas and Lavellan can dump each other, with very rare variations included.

[thevulturesquadron]

Anyone who claims that the secret ending in Veilguard is disrespectful or nullifies agency in the previous three games is either unable to traverse layered storytelling or is being ignorant on purpose.

I am not sure how someone assumes that it was about mind control or magic when games upon games the fantasy setting in Dragon Age has been a medium for telling stories about the nature of people, about different perspectives, about the dangers of applying singular ideals to a complex existence, about how people and the ways in which they interact shape destinies.

How can you not be excited to learn that there’s a world outside Thedas, that the web is more complicated and that when one wrestles to break the threads it vibrates all the way to the spider letting it know it’s dinner time?

[heliomanteia]

I do appreciate how Solas' writing is still heavily tied to the concept of reflection on the player's character and how the final opinion on Solas you end up with relies on what version of the story you believe/how you interpret his words. Ultimately, Solas' character denies being placed within extremes (hero or villain) but seeking the middle ground is purposefully difficult both in DA:I and DA:TV, in my opinion.

Varric was so right about his "clever half-truths" because no I don't think Solas lies in DA:TV. My favorite example is his stance on blood magic — and his ability to sneak between definitive statements.

"I abhor the use of blood magic" sounds like a deliberate lie, especially with further context of the game, but he does abhor it, which does not mean he won't use their tenuous connection to Rook when it's offered. He's not lying, he's just answering to the implication with an emotive stance instead of practical. Someone can hate something and still utilize it, especially when they did not directly force it to occur (for all we know Rook's bleeding was an accidental consequence of a deliberate attack).

Solas is the same way within the base game of DA:I, actually. He says he "does not use blood magic" when approached by Cole with a request to bind him but he approves of the Inquisitor's open-minded approach to blood magic as a concept in a conversation in Haven. Which are a bit further apart as statements than his actions vs. words in DA:TV but they're still not cancelling each other out.

He's made of "contradictions" that are actually just nuanced approaches to aspects of a bigger topic: "blood magic is interesting and those who blindly deny its intriguing nature (as a topic) betray their close-minded approach to the unknown and the taboo (disapproves) whereas those who are eager about learning its theoretical boundaries are a delight as it shows their curious spirit (approves); however, do not assume the use of it of me (for it comes with moral judgement and assumption of my nature) or that bestowing it upon another is an approach chosen by me on purpose (but using it if offered, with no other choice in sight, is, while abhorrent, not something to deny)".

[sky--phantom]

Believe me, we're all surprised here.

[coffeeworldsasaki]

Gotta say people that throw a fit every time someone mentions the possibility of seeing some solavellan in datv are quickly becoming my least favorite people in a fandom filled with unpleasant people. Yes Solas is one of the main characters in datv, there should be more mentions of the romance thanks to that, maybe a 20 minutes romance will become a 25 minutes one should we call the police or can you shut the fuck up

[lvllns]

hm. one could, in theory, argue that rook's personality being relatively even across all options (slightly sarcastic, not as mean as some people wanted) is because of solas.

lean into the element of horror. the lack of control. lean into you have the elvhen god of trickery in your head and you want to be mean to someone but you can't. you think the words you want to say yet something else entirely comes out. you want to be mean, to tear this person to shreds, to call them an idiot and instead words form on your tongue, and you don't know where they came from.

[abyssal-ilk]

posting that sketch yesterday made me remember just how much i love my taashath so i did another doodle <3

[mossattack]

god i hope drinking from the well of sorrows has some fucked up consequences for the inquisitor in da4. i hope it gives mythal (no way she's dead dead) or another evanuris the power to control them. i hope they make the inquisitor do something sooo evil and terrifying that it leaves them scarred forever

[dark-elf-writes]

Percy and Annabeth waking up in Thedas (and anyone else you think would be fun) for them to end up with Percy as Inquisitor would be hilarious.

I’m laughing so hard at this because I know deep down in my heart that Percy just stumbled on the Conclave in the five minutes he was separated from the others (Annabeth, Thalia, and maybe Nico and Grover?) and managed to find the closest thing to a god to piss off immediately. I also know that he picked up the orb, felt the agony of the anchor being carved into his hand and in the split second before it all blew up yeeted it as hard as he could at Corypheus.

The others are so tired because of course Percy managed to become the head of an organization actively fighting a hole in the sky AND get amnesia the minute they turn their backs. They will stay with him and fight however. It’s what they do.

[cybershock24601]

Was just reminded of MDZS today and started thinking that there might be some similarities between my Watcher Rook and WWX (not that many but a few) and now I've not only decided that my Rook is going to go around with a little red ribbon in her hair in honor of everyone's favorite necromancer but I am concocting an endgame canon divergence fic centered on the Regret Prison because I want to give Rook her own Yiling Laozu moment like this (please take this mini clip to get the vibe I'm going for although the whole scene is excellent)

I'm thinking in this au, Rook gets stuck in the Regret Prison for longer and with things deteriorating in Minrathous so much, the team decides that they have to put aside looking Rook to do what they can to stop Elgar'nan and save the team member that was kidnapped on Tearstone Isle. Romanced Lucanis takes it the hardest but is good enough at compartmentalization to set his grief aside for the sake of finishing the job because he also knows Rook wouldn't want them wallowing over her death. (In fact Watcher Rook probably casually talked about her death a little too much because she had been planning her funeral since she was 5 years old like most little girls do their weddings and wanted it to be the greatest party she would never see because, ya know, she'd be dead for it)

Only for everyone to get to Minrathous and things are terrible but the plan is working until all the fires in the city turn an eerie fadetouched green and the dead literally start rising from their graves. Everyone is sure they're fucked until those corpses start launching themselves at the darkspawn and especially the Venatori. All those people the Venatori so causally executed in the streets and left their bodies just lying around is coming back to bite them as the dead start taking their revenge.

And its not just the dead, as the darkspawn too start to turn on their own kind and the Venatori as well. All accompanied by an eerie whistling that sounds like its coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Everyone is freaking out about what is going on and Solas is super worried because he likes to be the guy who knows everything and now some unknown factor has seized control of the darkspawn from Elgar'nan and is doing more damage to his forces then Solas has in weeks.

The team has at this point joined up with Solas though none of them are happy about it because as far as they're concerned he killed Rook. Solas probably even tries to use Rook as leverage because he only imprisoned her and he will be able to free her, he promises, so long as they help him stop Elgar'nan. It is a deal reluctantly taken up though its not like anyone is happy about it. In fact they're digging into him with even more ferocity then in canon, especially Neve because not only did this guy kill Varric but he hurt Rook too.

So everyone (Neve and Davrin only at the moment bc everyone else has job to do) is together when they see Rook, red eyed and blighted, paler then ever with black veins crawling under her skin and wreathed with a green necrotic glow as she commands not only the dead but the darkspawn with expert precision. Neve and Davrin are a mix of relieved to see Rook and terribly concerned because she looks awful, clothes ripped to shreds and stained black with Blight, her hair wild and unkempt, and walking around barefoot and wild eyed as she approaches. Solas is way more concerned about this feral wraith coming right at him because he doesn't even get a chance to open his mouth before Rook is on him and trying to murder him.

It takes all of their strength to get Rook off him because she is determined to choke the life out of him for what he did to Varric - and herself because the Regret Prison wasn't just some quick walk through regret lane in this au. Instead of it only seeming like hours for her, it was like weeks or perhaps years because time sort of loses all meaning in the Fade. Especially when you end up where the Blight was imprisoned and must contend with the purest form of anguish in the form of the Titan's trapped minds.

Rook is not only dealing with her own regrets and grief but being forced to contend with those of the Titan's after millennia of torment. Rook is pretty much trapped in the void and it is destroying her mind because there's just so much rage and anguish all around her as she contends with not only the emotions of the titans screaming in her mind, their song turned discordant and chaotic, but the psychically manifestation of it too. Rook cannot help but think back to Harding and how it was a miracle she managed to come to terms with the enormity of the Titan's rage.

In the end it was Harding, who was lost at Tearstone Isle, that gives Rook the key to escape the place because just as Harding accepted the Titan's rage, Rook takes on their pain and promises to get revenge on those that consigned them to their endless dreaming.

Instead of Rook walking out of the Regret Prison after coming to a place of peace and acceptance and right into the arms of those closest to her, she emerges Blighted and enraged, and yes, she's accepted that Harding and Varric made their choices but that sure as hell doesn't mean she isn't going to get revenge.

There isn't time to explain all that to everyone though because Minrathous is still under siege and they have a god to kill, two if Rook has her way. Instead Solas does some very fast talking, hands off the lyrium dagger to Neve as Davrin and Assan sit on Rook to keep her from trying to kill Solas again and the guy wolfs out to attack the archdemon and get as far away from the mage supercharged by the Blight trying to kill him as he possibly can.

With Rook there drawing upon the Blight to strengthen her magic and her newfound connection to the Titans letting her rip control of the Blight away from Elgar'nan, getting to where the Blight is being controlled is a breeze. Rook just has to whistle once and suddenly the tendril is uncoiling and Bellara is freed. (I think Rook controlling the Blight through whistling would be fun because it connects with the musical nature of the blight's call)

I know Elgar'nan is probably in his throne room freaking the fuck out as he feels his control over the Blight slipping and desperately trying to claw it back and failing. He exerts more and more force to put it back under his command but fails against Rook's hold on the blight because her power over it is coming from a place of true empathy and understanding after spending who knows how long locked away alongside the Blight and instead of forcing the Blight to do what she wants she calls to it and offers it purpose to soothe its pain and resentment. Not to mention Rook harnessing the power of the blight to augment her own necromancy to raise the dead to enact vengeance on their killers.

Anyways I haven't thought much further then this other then there being a touching reunion when everyone links back up before the final push and seeing everyone together again helps settle Rook down and soothe her own rage to know everyone is safe. Lucanis definitely starts crying when he sees Rook again because no matter how controlled or repressed he is, he can't stop it with how relieved he is to see Rook alive as he hugs her close to him and buries his face in her neck while Spite's wings pop out to encircle them both as the two of them cling to each other half convinced this is some sort of cruel dream. It doesn't matter how terrible or terrifying Rook looks at the moment in her Blighted state, Lucanis is not letting go of her for even a second and Rook is alright with that as she clings back just as desperately.

This definitely has a Solas gets punched ending but instead of the team jumping in to help Rook which fits very thematically for the base game as Rook succeeds because she has people on her side where as Solas stays the lone wolf, it's Rook shrugging off his magic with her own blight augmented power, using the atrocity he created against him to throw him into the regret prison and into the hungry, grasping grip of the Blight that is all to eager to visit torment on the one responsible for it's own pain.

[vaguely-concerned]

felassan really showed up in the solas memories like 'can't haunt the narrative if you ain't cute and intensely loveable' didn't he

[ship-garbage-pile]

let's talk about Inquistior Adaars facecard, never once declined.

[fadewalking]

If you are not a roleplay blog, and are following me, first of all—hello. You are welcome here, and ily (especially if we're mutuals, I'd kill for u), but i just don't wanna confuse or disappoint anyone. so just for clarity, this is just a wee reminder that if you like my "starter call" posts, that's a rp blog thing, and you're not gonna get anything out of that 😅 but I appreciate your enthusiasm!

Also! You ARE invited to participate and engage with Solas or any of my other characters here in an askblog fashion. Meaning you can slide into my inbox, anon or not, and ask questions or leave comments for any of them.

[heliomanteia]

And maybe all this time the lesson has been that uncontrolled pride sometimes takes very relatable and sometimes even sympathetic forms and morphs until it slips through the mechanisms of your moral compass to justify horrendous crimes.

[loveydive]

okay. finished veilguard. um. it sure was definitely a game.