#solas was the real villain of DAI and not in the way you think

[monabee-draws]

Solas' real fatal flaw is that he is blind to his own bias and lack of information.

He is so buried in the worldview of the ancient elves and it is coloured heavily by his love for Mythal. Mythal's vallaslin originated from the past same as each of the others, which implies that she too had slaves (the practice of keeping them being something Solas abhors) but was 'benevolent and kind' to them and also 'wise enough' to lead them to a better path. The altercation at the Well is proof of Mythal's association with careful thought and information - the Well itself stores memories passed through generations. Many of her myths show her as a masterful judge of situations, able to see both sides of a conflict and determine a path with least bloodshed.

It is Mythal's wisdom (and the loss thereof leading to his own haste and the downfall of the elves) that likely influences Solas' attachment to knowledge, but it also blinds him to nuance. He respects wise leadership greatly, and faults those who act on false information (the wardens.) But what he fails to understand is that he doesn't actually understand or have all the answers about the world in its present state, at least not to the level where he can claim his wisdom leads him to the best possible path forward (if such a thing can actually exist.)

Solas knows one kind of world and exactly how it worked before the Veil destroyed it. The dwarves existed before the fall of Elvhenan, but that society's persistence through the Veil and subsequent destruction to some other catastrophe (the Blight) millenia later does not make him stop and recall that All Empires Eventually Fall. He does not take the time to understand qunari culture and existence. Nor to understand who the elves are now in the fullness of their circumstances, cultural shifts and new and layered practices. Because it is not Familiar it is not Correct. He does not understand how anyone can live Like That, and experience both sorrow and joy. Some of this is of course because of the large timeskip between his world ending and him waking up in the Thedosian present (this world feels like a dream) but instead of actually doing what makes people wise - that is, collecting both information AND experience on the ground, he assumes he already knows enough, knows BETTER, and that if everyone else did too, then of course they would choose his path/agree with him.

I think this is made most obvious in his scene with a romanced Lavellan where he tells of her the markings original meanings and in her shocked moment before she can process things offers to remove them. But Solas... its been 5000 years??? If not more?????? Symbols change! People in Thedas don't live forever anymore! Their lives are short, and the meanings assigned to things WILL change naturally over time. Language, for example, progress in Thedas: Dorian can no more read ancient Tevene than the elven inquisitors can read ancient elven. This is not an indictment of the knowledge held by those in the present, it is merely the nature of the progression of time.

It's unfortunate that the best analogue for Solas in the game is in fact Corypheus. As Dorian says, "the Imperium he remembers doesn't exist anymore" and it is the same for the rest of Thedas. The Veil may have accelerated the shift, but realistically, Arlathan took another 1000 years to fall to the humans. The elves might have lost power in some other way even if all he'd done was kill the Evanuris and freed everyone else. But, because he believes he has knowledge above all others, and that his knowledge is more complete than anyone else, he cannot possibly entertain the idea that he is wrong. His name being 'Pride' suits him well.

i can 100% understand loving solas for the complex character he is but i just cannot understand i CANNOT understand people seeing him go "hmmmm... dwarves are just severed limbs imitating life without a purpose... hmmm... qunari are savage barbarians... hmmmm... the modern elf might as well be stupid uneducated tranquils... and that's why i justify genociding them!!"

and be like

"omg you guys what if solas is right??? food for thought teehee."

think about what you are sayiinnngggggg.

[amoebab22]

Spent my therapy session this week talking about how much I hate Mythal and how Solas's treatment vs Mythal's by the Veilguard and everyone but Lavellan is reminiscent of what it feels like to be the child of an abusive mother.

No one is mad enough at Mythal. And Solas can't let go of his shame (because it's not just guilt and regret, it's shame that's driving him. Shame that keeps him from accepting Lavellan's love) until Mythal finally says oh, yeah, guess I made a mistake. You're no longer borderline enslaved to me by your intense shame, which I cultivated and do not seem remotely sorry about.

I want Mythal to be seen as the real villain she was. Elgar'nan and Ghil'an'nain are comically evil, but Mythal is the evil that lives in your home. That society tells you to love. And when you feel ashamed of what you were convinced by her to do and believe, society says it's your fault. Your mother loved you and did her best, so this must all be your fault. Your choice. You're the monster, not the person who broke you or twisted you until you became something else entirely. The time it took you to find your shape again, if you ever did, was wasted by you.

And when someone really cares for you, respects you, loves you in a way that's healthy and real, you know you don't deserve it, if you even recognize it. You don't understand how to love, only how to use. Because your mother loved you, right? That's what everyone keeps telling you. Your mother loved you. So... isn't it love if you act the same way to people under your command? People you have control over?

Isn't what you're doing love?

And if it is, why does everyone say you're a monster?

And if it isn't...

Then what does that mean about your mother?

And if your own mother didn't love you..

What kind of monster are you?

Don't @ me, this is the real dynamic there. You see it repeat in how Flemeth treats Morrigan. That's Mythal. That's her as a mother even after thousands of years to learn. And don't think she wasn't Solas's mother in a way. She was why he had a body. She brought him into that world. You see how Morrigan is after just a couple decades with Flemeth/Mythal. Morrigan calls out her shitty, selfish mothering in DAI.

Solas spent thousands of years with her. He is *broken.* And no one is angry enough for him. No one hates Mythal in game, and they should.

[vaguely-concerned]

To the ‘themes I am picking up on in Veilguard’ list, let's go ahead and add what I have a sneaking suspicion will actually turn out to be The theme:

— the world has changed and can never be as it was again.

— I have been changed and can never be who I was again.

— in this simple unavoidable truth there is endless grief and endless hope.

And I… may be getting a bit emotional about it haha. Let me show my work a bit: 

if da:o is a game about people who are already dead or half ghosts in some form (through societal forces, psychologically, functionally, literally, in body, through the joining etc.) coming together anyway to save the world from being swallowed by total nihilism and despair (symbolized by the blight) through the power of love and friendship and also this sword/potential heroic sacrifice that I found, da2 is a game about people who have lost their homes and been set adrift finding and building new homes in each other (while completely failing to save the world. also through the power of love and friendship. as well as years of petty bickering <3 we must imagine kirkwall if not happy then worth having been because the love was there the love was there and that's the only sanctifying force we can ever have in this doomed world and city of ours), and da:i is a game about old stabilizing-but-unjust comfortable lies vs. disruptive but potentially liberating uncomfortable truths, and the power of friendship to help us distinguish the one from the other and navigate through them...

folks… I'm starting to think that veilguard might be a game specifically about moving towards recovery and acceptance after trauma — about how even in this flawed, severed, scarred state, what is here right now is worth loving and worth caring for. even in an imperfect and impermanent world and self, there is worth and joy. and of course the first real tragedy — and threat — of Solas is that he just cannot find it in himself to accept this and move on, to let go of what was, the regret won’t let him go or he won’t let go of it. which means that even though on the surface it’s Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain (and the will to subjugate and violate they represent) who are the main villains, the real antagonistic force in this story beneath that is the Dread Wolf’s despair. A despair Rook must make an answer to by the end of the game, one way or another, compassionately or with righteous fury, triumphant or pyrrhic.

The world will change again and again and so will you — BUT the crucial element is that so will everyone else who exists along with you, you are fundamentally not alone in this existential truth. all we’ll ever have is each other and my god that is plenty, my god that is enough!!! Which is the second thing Solas just can’t accept, he keeps himself separate and completely alone out of an awful mix of fear and pride and feeling himself unworthy of anything else. Rook and the player want to save the world of Thedas because it’s where everyone we love lives, Solas wants to go back to the past because that’s the only neighbourhood where he can still visit those he loved — and the person he himself was, before. A very sympathetic and human instinct/trap to fall into when touched by trauma, I think, if only it wasn’t backed by godlike power, a fundamentally oppositional personality, and a catastrophic lack of therapy to make it literally everyone else’s problem too lol. It’s varric and solas’ banter about the man on the island and where meaning in a life comes from all over again, writ large and with detail work — and the added idea of ‘what if there are also other islands out there, though. With other people on them that you could find if you reach for each other’. Rook with the best of intentions has to make choices to which there are no perfect outcomes and live with what happens — and not cut themselves off from everyone else around them even when there is regret or shame. You get back up every day and you make a life with other people doing the same and you do your best, and that’s the only victory this world will give you. In the end, that is more than enough, that is essential. And I um. I love that. So much. It’s why some of the writing clumsiness on top can’t hurt me because this thematic spine is so solid and so beautiful to me. It’s DA2 all over again that way for me personally — I forgive this story for what it isn’t and couldn’t be, and I love it with my whole stupid open heart for what it actually is. Thank you for coming to my TED-talk and goodbye etc.      

(For my fellow TLT heads out there — you know what this story is reminding me of most of all, actually? It has some big Nona the Ninth vibes down there in the deep. It’s about… the horror and unspeakable beauty that can only be found in liminality, and the role of love in making that basic fact of existence bearable. And also even more unbearable at the same time. I'm so sorry.)

[simpforsolas]

As I continue to progress through the games on my replay leading up to Dragon Age: The Veilguard's release, the more I'm reflecting upon the heart of the series. As an RPG, the purpose has always been to create a dynamic game that responds to our choices, and part of that is to create a believable world that's real enough that there are multiple ways you can play the game. No ultimate "right" answer or "wrong" answer. Even if there are perspectives you disagree with, you can understand why characters may hold different opinions from you if you think about why they think the way they do.

With all these thoughts spinning around in my mind, I began my DAI replay and got a dialogue with Solas that I think gets right to the heart of the entire series:

Inquisitor: I've heard the stories [about Ostagar]. It'd be interesting to hear what it was really like. Solas: That's just it. In the fade I see reflections created by the spirits who react to the emotions of the warriors. One moment, I see heroic wardens lighting the fire and a power-mad villain sneering as he lets King Cailan fall. The next, I see and army overwhelmed and a veteran commander refusing to let more soldiers die in a lost cause. Inquisitor: And you can't tell which is real. Solas: It is the fade. They are all real.

This is it, people! This is what Dragon Age is all about! This is why we have characters who some people love and some people hate, why no one is perfect. This is why there's so much discourse about the game. Dragon Age is all about different people reacting to an imperfect world and understanding why they act the way they do. Especially in recent times, writers often fall into a trap of not wanting their characters to be problematic in any way that it can take the life out of them and leave them feeling stale. But Dragon Age does not do that. It fully commits to its characters, for better or for worse, allowing their pasts and perspectives to shape their imperfect world views and inform their behaviors. Ironically, Solas's exact words here about Loghain can be applied to him, and it's exactly why some people hate him while others love. Like Loghain, some see him as an egotistical murderer while others see him is a tragic figure whose empathy and idealism drive him to monstrous acts.

What's the truth? What is real? Ultimately, it doesn't matter. All that matters are the emotions and interactions people (players included) have with the world and characters. That's why the choices in games like Dragon Age matter so much. There shouldn't be a right answer or a wrong answer; all that matters is what feels right to the player. Because in Solas's words, all our different perspectives on things that happened? They're all real. And this is where so much discourse comes from. People try to take away the nuanced view of these characters and the world and insist that their perspective is the objective truth. Someone who loves Anders could be in danger of brushing past his many flaws while someone who hates him might be incapable of understanding the complexities that drove him to become the person he ended up. But in the end, all our different reactions to these characters are valid and real, both the positive and the negative. These characters are complex and three-dimensional, and to fully appreciate them it's imperative that we recognize that.

The Dragon Age world and its characters are so meticulously crafted that at its practically its own living thing at this point. As players interact with it, we all end up having our own experiences that influence our opinions of everything, from the characters, to what decisions are the best, to opinions on in-game power dynamics and politics.

[stayatsam]

dragon age fanbase is crazy because every time a new game comes out theres the same cry about them somehow ruining the lore story that they've been following ever since the first game. it's the same old story since origins

VEILGUARD SPOILERS UNDER CUT

some complaints ive seen plus the games' explanations:

"the archdemons are tied to the elven gods?" yeah they've been hinting at that for some time

"the maker might not be real?" the entire chantry being built on a lie was kind of spot on since origins. we found out in trespasser that it was solas who made the veil, also.

"why do the dalish know the gods are evil/blighted?" because solas' agents have been spreading the word, and the veil jumpers also discovered more about the true history, a veil jumper rook even says so themselves. veil jumper codex' entries also seem to imply not all of the gods were on the scale of elgar'nan and ghilan'nain, (it's more complex than They Are All Evil Evil Evil Tyrants. it's similar to orlais' politics, i won't get into all that though. like, they were all tyrants in their own way in the same way the other rulers in thedas are)

"i cant believe they destroyed southern thedas!" well it IS a double blight and southern thedas has the least amount of grey wardens right now, the entire region has been unstable for decades. ten years isn't long enough to recover from three wars (mage-templar, corypheus, war of lions, and ten years prior it's also said it takes decades to recover from a blight). i'd be mad if the south got off without any damage from the literal apocalypse

"why would orlais' nobility side with the venatori?" orlais has always been one of the most corrupt nations on thedas, inquisition put a bandaid on its civil war, no wonder some of them sided with the venatori. solas says again and again it doesn't matter WHO the gods are, they're dishing out glory and power to selfish people who crave glory and power

"why do the venatori worship elven gods?" the elven gods ARE the the old gods of tevinter in its glory days, plus solas even says it doesn't matter who they worship so long as they have power, and the gods give that to them. venatori combat barks specifically call out to the old gods, too. plus there's so much blood magic and mind control going on they might not even be fully aware these are elves they're worshiping

"they sanitized the crows" i wish we got more morally dubious crows too and i won't lie they definitely took a less offensive side to them, but lucanis' and illario's various dialogues definitely imply they had an abusive upbringing under caterina. there's also banter of how zevran's house murdered 8 of their own members after origins. the crows are such a massive organization too we're ONLY seeing treviso. not to mention zevran's been killing antivan crow leaders for the past twenty years to purposefully shake up the organization. things change in twenty years

"the lords of fortune are too nice to be pirates" they aren't pirates, they're treasure hunters/scavengers that ransom relics to orlesian nobles. ngl not a whole lot to say since i think they're a boring faction and i wish we got to see more of them

"they took the slavery/evil parts out of tevinter" they definitely toned down tevinter i am also disappointed we don't get to see more of its gritty side but we do meet venatori slaves and save several from blood magic rituals, the venatori torture a halla in front of a kidnapped dalish clan, if you save treviso you'll see public executions and carts piled with bodies swarmed by flies in the streets of minrathous

like. i have genuine complaints about the game and i wish they handled certain things differently and with more detail but the writers have confirmed they're still working off the same worldbuilding that was written for origins

Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are also 10x better villains than Corypheus ever was, i'd say they're probably the series' funnest main antagonists yet

[fenharel]

some of my thoughts after finishing veilguard a couple days ago before i start my second playthrough :)

ok i think its important to note first that the things i was most looking forward too was 1. solas, 2. solavellan, 3. lore. im self aware enough to know that this will have had some influence towards what i expected from the game and what i enjoyed/cared about or not 👍

good

solas: im honestly so happy. my man is finally happy and reunited with his wife!!!!!! my heart feels so full 😭 this game was a solas fans wet dream. absolutely loved everything we got. hunting down regrets and watching old memories. talking to him in the fade. the entire crossroads!!!!!! him shit talking elgar'nan. watching him go trickster mode and imprison rook. fighting the archdemon as the dread wolf!!!!!! i could go on forever. CHEFS KISS TO IT ALL<3333333333333 if anything i wish there would have been MORE im greedy what can i say

solavellan: screaming crying throwing up. i still cant believe it oh my fucking god

lore reveals: i found all the reveals about all our old theories so fun. i didnt like all of them (old gods are just dragons? c'mon.) but overall it felt so rewarding to have picked up on it all. or be totally surprised by something (mythal and solas the reason for the titans and the blight? wow.)

the executors, forgotten and forbidden ones: the next big bads of the next game huh!!!! loved what we got for the most part, the mysterious circle codexes where probably the most interesting in the game. anaris actually showing up shocked me. i wish bellaras brother didnt say "for plot reasons i must die" and actually told us something about him but oh well. im cautiously optimistic about the secret ending for now. what it implied could go either way for now...

main quest: not all of them, but a lot of them were awesome. dare i say some quests were up there with the best main quests in da??? weisshaupt was epic. or the blood of arlathan. every time we get to talk to solas (thehe<3). the final bits. the strong points were so strong that the low points got highlighted a bit too much imo

act 3: by far my favourite act. this was soooo good. the romance finally (?!) kicking it. suicide mission 2.0 stressed me tf out. the varric reveal? send me to the asylum. solas tricking rook? king behaviour i was cheering for him while crying about varric. the dread wolf transformation. the conversation between solas/mythal/lavellan at the end. i basically was in tears throughout half of the thing. couldnt read the credits at all. act 3 was amazing

minrathous vs treviso: i loved this especially with the angst of playing a shadow dragon who failed minrathous. and then the consequences and quest changes this causes throughout the game was really cool. i wish there were more bigger choices like this since it felt a bit flat choice wise besides of this one, but it was amazing.

villains: ghilan'nain and elgar'nan were great. they really felt like the tyrannical gods they were supposed to be. im so glad there was mostly no corypheus-esque cringe. (tho especially ghil had some video gamey lines but sdjkfhjksdf i still love her)

neutral

rook: i dont really care much about rook.. 🙈. mind you rook was certainly not the reason why i wanted to play this game so im sure a second playthrough will make me warm up to them more, now that my head is more free, but it just didnt insta click. rook didnt feel like a real person to me, almost nobody had any (to my taste) realistic reactions towards them. the stakes just were too high for them to get treated this way (nobody is pissed off that they freed the gods? everyone just believes them when they say gods are walking around? everyone just agrees to work with them? nobody cares how rook is doing? or who rook even is? idk.) i didnt like the introduction much either. the shepard treatment didnt work for me here, just believing that rook is fit for the job because varric says so wasn't enough for me. rook also has barely anything going on for them either besides of being the relentless "good guy". we never see them doubt themselves or be fearful or be mean. all the dialogue options are the same as well. its.... boring. anyway i dont wanna bash on rook, i know i'll end up liking them more later. the headcanons will be headcanoning<3

companions: i... don't have strong feelings about most of them? all of them got to me sooner or later, made me cry. but afterwards im still 🤷‍♀️ about most. i didnt feel like we get to know them as deeply as we get to know companions in the previous games. i really really missed sitting in the lighthouse for hours and talk to them, ask them about their profession or what they are about outside of cutscenes like in the previous ones. i think that would have helped me click with them faster. i didnt find all companion quests very strong either. the "high stakes" of the main story made some conflicts feel a bit like we can just fix that after the story lol. i did not like the mass effect 2 treatment of them much... (but me2 is overrated anyway sshh dont kill me<3) some companion quests i did find interesting lore wise (bellara, harding) even if i wish that some of them would have went a bit deeper there. anyway i know i'll probably end up loving them all after a couple of playthroughs, this almost always happens to me, dai is the best example.

combat: don't care. this isn't my type of combat, i don't play a lot of super actiony combo dodge dodge block combat games. still hate the limited abilities. at least it didn't feel too clunky on mouse and keyboard and it was "fun enough" to me so thats good

puzzles: i could put them into the bad category but at least they weren't too terrible so i don't want to be too harsh. but i don't enjoy doing them. i dont want to search for a crystal in a bush. i mean i did them all but at what cost. this felt like filler i thought they wanted to avoid by not adding fetch quests???

bad

pacing: this games hardest battle imo. the pacing of the game is... strange. act 1 is way too fast. it feels like we're running and have absolutely no time for anything. (makes sense! didnt work well though). act 2 then drags a bit with all the companion quests, and the mix really drags the progression of the romances as well to a ridiculous degree. at least with lucanis, idk how it is with the others. i love him and i can headcanon to fill in the blanks so i liked his romance, but it does make it seem like nothing is happening for 50 hours for everyone who doesnt like to headcanon around. anyway, the pacing/storytelling felt often not fitting. it was trying to be mass effect in a story that is too complex and the lore too rich to run through it. this felt like the main reason why we just never went very deep into the lore of the factions or new npcs, or learn or see certain things, the complex nature of the crows, or tevinter magisters and their slaves, we are just running all the damn time? we never get to explore certain things that would feel unnatural to come up in a conversation or in some other way because we are limited by the things the story "has time for". or what the devs had time for.

wishy washy writing: not everywhere but in some places and im not used to that in a da game so its a bit baffling. "the blight is different now so thats the reason for x trust me bro" ok....? "the first of my people do not die so easily" = mythal is shattered and lives on, makes sense. but the other evanuris are all dead, even the ones that were "dead" already? why? idk........ i shall stay delusional for now and hope i've missed something in my completionist run that i now in my next run will find somewhere lol. besides of that, the tone and language used by rook and companions is strangely unfitting as well. coloquial words like "it's cool" are frequently used, among other things. it stands in contrast to the writing of the previous games and is often immersion breaking.

limited worldstate: i had hoped they at least commit to it when i heard about this. but then adding little references that could have just been made personal by switching one line just made the reference a bit jarring sometimes instead of exciting. or making morrigan eat mythals memories for the regret quest....really? this could have been the well of sorrows choice, why could they not have just made the inquisitor show up in the crossroads if they were the one that drank from it. this whole choice thing + some other problems ended up feeling like something they didnt really want to do but ended up doing because the game was in development for so long they just had to finally fucking finish it. and it sucks for us.

the veil: why... is it still there? they left breadcrumps of clues throughout the entire series about all the positives it would do if it was gone, even add a damn prophecy, and then just dont do it.... ever perhaps? must the blight really be cured for this? demons forever feared? listen im just glad solas is ok at the end of the day but he could still have had his redemption/healing/forgiving himself moment after destroying it imo.

i wish the inquisitor was more involved in everything :((( the moments we did get made me SO happy but. yeah.

no quicksave and the skip button that ruined my screenshots deserve their own bullet point what the hell

anyway enough yapping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! overall i loved the game because the stuff i cared about the most was the best aspects of the game sdkjhsdjkf im not ashamed to admit that this is my new solas 2.0 game. ..... <3

[burning2know]

yessss, this!!

omg i came across a post earlier today about how "real" solas fans love him because he's evil. And it's a more popular idea in the wake of Veilguard, despite the fact that Solas was by and large Helping the cause in both DAI and vg. I guess feelings of moral righteousness trump actual actions. 🫠 Man, I dread that i have to exist in this world. Every time this thought goes by I hope this isn't where our future is going. But I didn't write this post just to doomspiral into the black abyss. I mainly wanted to complain about the wishy washy tugowar treatment of solas in vg.

I came up with a potentially logically coherent explanation for all this (to clarify, just because it's logically coherent doesn't mean it's correct or I agree with it). According to Veilguard's philosophy, we ought to affirm all identities/self-perceptions regardless of whether we understand them or not. We should affirm Taash's perception of themselves as a non-binary person as much as we should affirm Solas's perception of himself as a villain. At least in this context, it somewhat makes sense that all the companions bend over backwards to try to paint him as such after every memory (except that one time with Davrin ig, not that I even remember what he said).

I think it's quite stupid to always affirm someone else's perception of themselves. We can be extremely wrong about ourselves. But it also goes against my belief about referring to people in a way that doesn't cause suffering. Certainly, I've experienced suffering when other saw me differently than I see myself. But I've also learned a lot from them so it's quite valuable as far as life experience goes. Not all self-perception is made equal. Some are healthy and some aren't, and not even professionals can distinguish them sometimes. It's not a line, it's more like a zone. Bit of an abstract tangent, oops.

Anyway, I can't remember enough of vg to evaluate whether this logically coherent reasoning actually tracks in the game (beyond Taash because that's somebody who Definitely doesn't follow that philosophy).

@kaija-rayne-author since you wrote the original message, wonder what you think.

Suddenly remembered all the times that somebody said of solas in game "he thinks he's the hero" and yet THAT identity was never affirmed. Also, SINCE WHEN BRO??? I think I'm doing the right thing feeding my cats lunches that they ignore until much later, but that doesn't mean I think of myself as a hero. I have a responsibility to them to ensure their health and wellness. And same when i have children or need to take care of my elderly parents. Why did that take even make it in the game and get repeated so often? It's absolutely bonkers.

I need to repurge the game from my mind palace, it's disturbing my peace again now that I've thought about it longer than a minute.

[afraidofchange]

13, 16 for DA

@dimensionalspades | 🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

13. worst blorboficiation ... well. As someone who writes a main villain of the series, I can safely say it's not Meredith :'). Honestly, and I'm gonna be a hater but I fear that the worst blorbofication by fandom is probably Anders and Cullen in my personal experience. I do think Anders' extremism is in perfect foil to Meredith's, pushed to desperation to take those measures; if he is a terrorist, so is she. But the people in fandom who do not understand the nuances and contexts of the situation are... immense. Anders also has a lot of uncomfortable dialogue towards Hawke (specifically, fem!Hawke) that gets ignored and I hate it. For Cullen, his redemption was not done well in DAI, and glosses over the fact that he was Meredith's second in Command, and ONLY stopped her when she threatened Hawke really tells of his complicity in the Annulment. Fandom loves to ignore that too. You can argue that yes, she hand picked him and groomed him to be her successor, but he's still an adult with working eyes that could see everything falling apart in front of him. He's not innocent!

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) I am gonna catch flack for this lol, but I am really not drawn into the Elf Lore(tm) of the series. I understand its importance, and I did actually get super emotional because of Solas' arc in DAV. I have read numerous critiques/breakdowns about Bio.Ware's writing of it, and the potential real life allegories to Indigenous cultures or being Jewish, and how they are (poorly?) handled in some ways. It just does not hook me in the same way other characters do. Like I'm happy for y'all but it's not for me kJHSJDKHFSD.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Ugh I can’t not theorize. I’ve been at it non stop. Once a story catches my interest my brain just going into hyper speed trying to figure out how the writers (if they do a good job) will bring all of their themes, hints, etc to fruition. All I’m missing is a cork board, pins, and miles of red string.

What’s super exciting this time is I’m actually dealing with a property where the writers are….good? I’m so used to being disappointed when fan theories (often my own) turn out to be much better than the canon, but I don’t see that happening here. Weekes is clearly a masterful writer and knows how to build up to a satisfying twist.

Because you just know another twist is coming. Solas, despite everything, is just too soft hearted to make a convincing final boss. It couldn’t be more obvious that being The Dreadwolf and putting aside his own conscience takes every ounce of energy he has. Eventually he’ll have his breaking point and that’s when we’ll find out who our true villain is.

It’s Mythal. I’ll eat my damn hat if it isn’t. She’s either not the person Solas remembers, or maybe she never was. In either case, there’s been plenty of clues both in DAI and in subsequent materials (specifically Tevinter Knights) to imply that there’s something else going on here.

We keep seeing imagery of the Dreadwolf as a mutant abomination that is part wolf and part dragon. It’s easy to point to the end credit scene of DAI and say “well yeah he fused with Mythal who is a dragon” and sure it looked that way…but is that actually what happened?

We saw Flemeth part with some form of magical energy before Solas arrived. We also know that she’d taken the soul of Uthemiel from Kieran. Uthemiel happens to be a dragon, or was until he was tainted and became an Archdemon.

Archdemons can control Darkspawn. And taking a Darkspawn army past the Veil to enact vengeance upon the Evanuris sees like something Flemeth would do. But that doesn’t seem like something Solas would want. His agenda has always been to fix his past mistakes and tear down the Veil for the greater good. He doesn’t seem that fond of Darkspawn, in fact he was pretty pissed at the Wardens for screwing around with them.

Where I’m going with this, is I think it’s entirely possible Solas is being used. He may have unwittingly fused himself with an Archdemon, assuming it was the essence of Mythal. The real plan, now that plan A failed, might be turning him into an Archdemon so Flemeth/Mythal can use him to start another blight and wield the darkspawn. Corypheus managed to mind control an Archdemon, so clearly it can be done.

And if that’s the case, then ooooooh boy.

Poor Solas.

OMG. I missed this one and I'm so glad I finally found it!

What a fascinating idea. Holy shitballs.

Okay, so I just restarted DAO, I'll be on the lookout through these playthroughs (I'm doing DA2 next, then probably DAI again, because I'm an utter sucker for lore) for hints about all that!

I thought the whole point of the dark ritual w/Morrigan was to purify Urthemiel's 'soul' through being born as an innocent child. But what if that didn't work?

But then, wouldn't Kieran have shown signs of taint? Hmmm. Maybe not, given it's just the soul?

I'm still not convinced that Flemythal parted with any kind of energy in that scene. BUT if she did... well, she's pulled the whole 'soul piece recovery schtick' before. So if it was energy or a soul, it could've been hers. Leaving just Urthemiel. Which would very possibly warp Solas into a dragon/wolf thing. And Mythal is very used to Solas going along with what she wants. So it feels like something she wouldn't think twice about. She uses Morrigan too, and Kieran, so it’s definitely something she's used to doing.

I have a strong feeling Solas is indeed being used. And has been since he was 'born' from the fade. There's a lot of hints to his resignation, nay, even belief that it's right that Mythal used him. (This is... common, in abuse survivors, FWIW.)

But I believe it's canon that his forehead scar came from when he burnt off Mythal's Vallaslin? I have to see if I can find that again. I can't remember where I read it.

I think Mythal will be rather unpleasantly surprised in the spine Solas has developed since her 'murder'. He doesn't seem at all likely to me to be all 'hey! My enslaver is back! Let me just get my slave brands again'. Now, if he were still truly alone, he might just cave into it because man, does Solas have some pretty massive Mythal issues. Not sure if he regards her as his mom or something else or a mix of things, urk.

BUT he's not actually truly alone anymore is he? No matter how hard he tries to be. A Romanced Lavellan can tell him "Var lath vir suledin" which translates sorta, into "Our - love - way/path - endure/strength to withstand loss."

So he knows he's not alone. That inky will absolutely go to the mat for him. He has actual friends, too. He said Bull has him, if you don't betray Bull w/the Chargers. Solas doesn't strike me as someone to say that lightly.

So, he also knows he has friends, too.

I think, if Mythal actually is the big bad (kinda hoping for this tbh) she's gonna have a rather rude awakening when it comes to Solas. Who, from all I can tell, has always willingly served her whims. Because she was 'the best of them' doesn't mean she was actually good.

I talked about how he's heavily neurodivergent coded before, and we're generally loyal to a fault, which Solas very much shows.

But we do also often, eventually, reach a 'no more' point. After which, we'll absolutely close all those doors we'd previously left open.

If Solas acts the way I suspect he might, he'd then use everything he knows about Mythal and the Evanuris to help the game protag (I still wish I could just carry my inky over) defeat the buggers.

But what would it take for him to finally reach that point with Mythal? Mommy issues are soooo hard to deal with in therapy because it's so damned easy to backslide.

Hurting Inky? Doing something that will destroy the fade (like marching a darkspawn army into it)? Making him betray all of his followers who truly believe in him and his goals of freeing enslaved elves?

Solas deeply believes that slavery is wrong. In a way that makes me think he was actually enslaved at one point. Obviously to Mythal.

Oh, fuck me. What an amazing story they could tell about the whole 'but there were good slave owners' bullshit nonsense some people like to spout.

Of course, I still really wish Bioware would tell a story with a disabled protag. Which the end of Inquisition really would set up nicely. But given their shit disability rep, I know not to hold my breath over that.

[howetragic]

DARP Advent 2024: Day Six

HALFWAY THERE!

Let's talk about INFLUENCES and ADMIRATION! Mun Portion!:

1. What inspired you to get into DARP? Former RP experiences? Just a love for the games? Oh boy. So I actually have a looooooong history of RP since I was in like middle school??? My best friend in the entire world and I actually met on Neopets!!! on the RP boards. I was in this group called the Annoyers and we would "raid" creepy/weird RP threads and/or just flood the boards. Some of us got banned. I then went on to lead this group in a multi-fandom mix of boards. We had a b2g board and a... gosh I can't remember what it's called. We were also on Gaia Online. I was a moderator with Dragon Ball Z / greek mythology muses (hilarious spread there, I know). Then I got on Tumblr, I started writing Dragon Age fanfic for my Hero of Ferelden. And Shink, Pandy, and Tabbi were foolish enough to allow me to RP with them on my personal blog until I finally took the leap and made myself an RP blog and the rest is kind of like history. 2. Name one (or a couple) of your fellow writers that you think are neat, and why! Can be famous, on Tumblr, in your real life, on AO3, whatever. My baes both on AO3 and here are @theshirallen and @theharellan, and I'm also in love with @fatedvoyage, @turlums, @mercysought. Can't recommend those nerds enough. 3. Has anyone in DARP (past or present!) really helped to define or reimagine a character for you? Or made you rethink perceptions that you held? Oh God yeah. Most notable being Tas with Solas - before I met Tas I didn't really give a shit about Solas and wasn't particularly interested in him or his story. Unfortunately for my brain if Inara doesn't Vibe with a character I don't pay too much attention to them at first, and Solas resided in that gray bubble. Tas made me love him and be fascinated even before that turned out to be a very plot-relevant thing to be. 4. What other fandoms/works/writers have influenced your writing style and the way that you view writing and creative expression? lololol maybe see above but overall my writing was influenced very early on by Douglas Adams and Phillip Pullman. I wanted to be magical, but also amusing. 5. Do you have any friends that have created a Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor/Rook that you've basically adopted? Yes. I still use Pandy's Hawke but also steal @fatedvoyage's Van. I love Thora for Inquisitor but am coming to love Asharen more and more since I've been back here, as well as @keepslore. There's a lot of great Rooks so far I'm sure I'll absorb one. 6. What's a fandom work (writing, art, etc) that you think is super cool and you wish more people would see it? Share it with us! I mentioned this Sebastian and Nathaniel fic from Gaia to @mournflame the other day and I think all of you should read it too.

Muse Portion!:

1. Who or what are some things/powers/people that your muse admires? Unfortunately for Nathaniel, his greatest hero was his father growing up. He admired the man very much. 2. Does your muse have a "hero" that they look up to from canon? In an extension of the above, Nathaniel saw Rendon as a hero for his contributions to the Rebellion. He really believed that his father was courageous and brave. 3. What legends, tales, or stories helped to form your muse's ideas of power and heroism? Many! He heard all the stories of the Heroes of the Rebellion as he grew up, from Maric and Loghain to his own father. Standing against the odds, acting noble even when your title has been stripped from you and taking back what is yours by right. Those are the stories that inspired him. 4. Conversely, what sort of legends, tales, or stories formed their idea of what a villain is? Much the same. Nathaniel does not care for Orlais, though chevaliers are a bit softer in his mind thanks to his time with his mother's cousin. 5. Are there other muses in DARP that your muse admires? Or reviles/fears? (be careful with that second one and be RESPECTFUL.) In DARP I think he would admire @mercysought's Anora. He begins hating every HOF that slaughtered his father but especially Couslands. 6. If your muse is someone who has companions or is one of the groups of companions from canon, how do they and their companions play off of each other? Are they friends? Enemies? Two dudes who'd cross the street to avoid each other? What are their most powerful connections within their "group"? He's got a wide variety in the Awakening crew. He and Sigrun are fairly close. He has a crush on Velanna, but she rebuffs him. Anders frustrates him, Oghren disgusts him. Justice... Justice tends to piss him off.

[someoneintheshadow456]

Until I decide to get rid of the Dress up at the Winter Palace mod and choose to look fugly or get it to work I will say some random DAI thoughts without playing:

Vivienne comments on every romance with the companions but doesn't with the advisors... which makes zero sense. She should have especially commented on Josephine because they literally knew each other back at Orlais. They weren't friends, sure, but it's very odd that she doesn't say anything. She should ESPECIALLY say something if you are a mage, because mage x non-mage always spells trouble in her eyes.

You should have had the opportunity to piss Josie off. Like, if your relationship with her is bad enough, she will straight up Not Ask You what you think, and just take decisions without giving you a chance to have an input. Or if you have low approval with her, it should affect the war table in some way. I know that you CAN fuck up your relationship with her, but you should have been able to do it outside of that.

Speaking of the above, the Travelyans and the Montilyets are acquainted according to the lore, and Cullen is also from Ferelden and implied he's been to Oswtick Circle. If Lavellan gets a "default" option in the form of Solas, Cullen and Josephine should have had that same connection with Travelyan (especially the former if you're a mage, IK they do have dialogues for it but the romance plays the same regardless).

Even with Vivienne, she should have been more significant to Mage!Travy because she is literally your senior. Dorian also implies that the Travelyans are his distant cousins... but only if you're NOT a mage. He should have more incentive to do that if you are.

Same way, Josie/Blackwall being "improper" makes no sense because she's 1- Bi (a concern because of the "eldest child"/"next in line" problem) 2 - Has the opportunity to date an Inky who is non-human... which is even worse. Because it means she clearly has no concern for impropriety when it's YOU.

To rectify this, her and Blackwall should have gone all the way (like Dwarf Inky is literally a criminal too but Blackwall ain't okay?) if you don't romance her. And there should be SOME angst on her part if she likes someone who isn't "practical" for her family. If it's F!Travelyan, bring up the "next in line dilemma" and how she Wouldn't Get It because she's the youngest. If they're non-human or a mage, cite "what if the baby has magic/can't pass as a human." There should also be some lines implying her parents would make naysayers STFU because, well... Inky is Inky.

Corephyus' cult isn't explored that deeply. We should have gotten more story about how he's able to influence people so he isn't just "hahaha I'm evil." IK Solas is the "real villain", but the disparity between him and Corephyus is so jarring you can't believe that Solas is working under him.

[yarpharp]

Not quite getting why my fellow nerds are comparing Astarion to Solas, in all honesty. I just... Don't see it.

Astarion's a traumatized foppish bastard. He's very flirty and ridiculous and wants you to think that because he's terrified of a Real Emotion due to 200+ years of abuse. Which makes him develop defense mechanisms! He's also a chaotic neutral to chaotic evil fellow who has an unpredictable moral compass that is generally self-serving unless you convince him to try to be a little less murderous. He would rather not have sex until he really understands what HE WANTS. He's also far more vampiric than elven-coded, because he's mostly been forcibly made to forget a huge portion of his past. All his sense of superiority and arrogance is a mask to hide the very abused, very terrified elf at his core.

Solas is an arrogant but extremely well-spoken asshole. Yes, both Astarion and Solas are very verbose, but not in the same way. Solas is verbose because he's an old as fuck elf that knows a lot about his own culture because HE WAS THERE. He's verbose and archaic because... Well, he is archaic. He's an ancient elf. Solas is also hiding behind a mask, but not for a real defense. Sure, he's a mage. But it's far more because it wouldn't benefit him to be openly himself. Being Fen'Harel will not get him anywhere; playing at being some bumpkin introverted elf makes him far more approachable and far less threatening.

But I won't deny that if given the chance, Astarion could become a Vampire Ascendant (demigod vampire) and happily commit mass murder. Solas wants to also commit mass murder in the name of trying to bring back the olden Elvhen Days that have long since past, and it's probably absolutely futile.

But otherwise? To me, they are quite different characters that only vaguely have parallels between them on paper. They have different motivations and different influences, and... I'm sorry, but Astarion is Compelling in that you find yourself emphasizing with his Pain (and his healing/self-destruction depending on your choices with his personal questions), and Solas is Compelling in the way you love Tragic Heroes Turned Villains by the end of the story.

So yeah. I am baffled.

[thekorcariwilds]

okaaay just finished veilguard, spoilery thoughts below the cut. tldr is i liked it a lot :-)

dao=da2>dav>>>>dai

i have a handful of critiques and nitpicks that i will inevitably complain about in the future because this is a dragon age game HOWEVER i also had a great time and i am overall quite happy with it.

neve was my favorite character, surprising no one. second favorite was probably harding or lucanis, but i feel like i need to do everyone's romances before i make up my mind on that

sera-blackwall friendship mention from harding was huge for me

isabela cameo was better than i feared in all ways except clothing. we should all throw rotten tomatoes at whoever decided to put her in that fuck ass bikini loincloth thing. hoping eventually someone will make a mod that keeps the top (which i think is cute) but with Actual Pants like she had in dai's multiplayer instead.

choosing between treviso and minrathous was maybe the first time a dragon age game has forced me to make a choice where both options felt impossible to live with and also made me nauseous in real life. so i liked that.

had harding sacrifice herself killing ghilan'nain and thought i was handling it well and then as i was running around talking to everyone before the final series of quests i started heading towards her room on autopilot, remembered she was dead, and just burst into tears immediately. and then taash was like "everyone i love dies" and i started crying even harder. and then right after that i had sex with neve.

i'm probably doing harding romance next so i'm intrigued to see the sacrifice with davrin instead. will probably also make me cry.

probably my biggest story issue in the entire game is that i think what they did with the crows was sooooo boring why are only the wardens allowed to be flawed and morally corrupt why can't the assassin league that kidnaps and abuses children also be a little bit evil. as a treat. for me. >:(

didn't like varric's little narration montages that happened throughout the game, i felt like they could've been cut entirely and we wouldn't have lost anything

i was spoiled about varric being Dead The Whole Time and was expecting to find it annoying and contrived but i really liked what it did for solas's characterization so i'm mostly okay with it

speaking of solas, i looooved what they did with him this game. i did the tricksy ending and his "you are a mortal! a mortal! and i am a—(bitter laughter) i am a fool" was very good

ghilan'nain and elgar'nan were also very fun villains

non-story stuff: the combat was fine, the paraphrased dialogue wheel still annoys me, the cc isn't perfect but is soooo much better than any other bioware game that i can't complain too much, wish you could tint clothing/armor because i dislike the default color schemes for most of them lol

[bikorarey]

7, 10 & 21 for the choose violence thingie 👀 whatever fandom you want!

7.) what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

I'll do a second one of these. Varric Tethras. Surprise! Bioware gives you a designated best friend who is a yes man and the woder fandom loves him cuz they love having their ass kissed! Oh man you would think Varric was the maker the way people worship him. But he's a prick to Sebastian AND Blackwall for a bit because they are Noble and good men and only likes Blackwall when he finds out he murdered a family. On top of that he's another of Bioware's "I hate my ethnic/oppressed group" and he's annoying about it. This fucker when you go into a cave that you can see the back of from about 90 meters away from it "you know, not every dwarf loves caves..." oh sorry Varric didn't know we were walking into Kal shirok here in the hinterlands when the sun is out.

But all you ever see is "Varric is the best I would romance him so much cuz no one will ever compare to him. My Hawke and Inquisitor would fight over him cuz he's just so hot and better than every other LI" god it makes me roll my eyes at how people fawn over yes men characters with no backbone and who's main trait is "will agree with you". Sebastians a better archer, Sigrun is a better dwarf, and I'm hoping someone else can get a spotlight in DA:D cuz I'm tired of Varric.

He's fine in combat in DAI and I do like his banter with Vivienne!

10.)worst part of fanon?

Ignoring the facts about a character to recharacterize them. Like Garrus and the "He's Turian Batman!" No he isnt. He was a trigger happy ex cop who wanted to just kill people and call it justice. Also projecting our real world issues onto fictional characters or plot elements. Like when people started saying Mage Lives Matter in the DA fandom because of Black Lives Matter IRL. That shit sucked.

21.) Part of canon you think is overhyped?

Solas has two things. His "I was wrong about you " convo for Adaar and Solas saying he's going to destroy the world.

Everyone says Solas is racist to Qunari/Tal Vashoth butnhe doesn't say anything The Iron Bull or Sten say about them. Bull and Sten say that the Qun keeps their davage nature in check, so why is Solas saying that after being AWAKE for 1 year that from what he heard Qunari are savage creatures? Theur own doctrine says it so why wouldn't he believe them until he meets a wise and noble Adaar that even THE IRON BULL will say is what Tal Vashoth should be if they don't want the Qun?

Also Solas as the main villain. Trespasser PLAINLY stated that Solas had a protagonist arc and his antagonists were the Evanuris, he eve says undoing the veil would release the Evanuris once more but he'll have to deal with them. Solas undoing the veil will most likely not do what he thinks because the world isn't dependent on Magic like it was when he sealed the fade. He won't be the main villain, the Evanuris will be. If anything, Solas could end up as a companion to the next Protagonist as we help him defeat the other Evanuris!

[thebonerpit]

I need to talk about Dragon Age Absolution because yeah I’m late to the party but I finally watched it...

First of all, I can’t get over the utter ridiculousness of Hawke failing to kill not one but TWO villains. Like. what the FUCK lmfao. This poor man/woman. And poor Varric too, holy shit. But I am a bit confused because Varric was viscount of Kirkwall at the end of DAI right? Was this already happening and he somehow just didn’t notice?? (There was also some weird timeline fuckery with Hira saying her family was killed by Venatori when she was a small child but now she’s at least 20 and the Venatori didn’t even exist until DAI. DA4 cannot be 15+ years later, that would be bananas.)

I was kind of spoiled for the Meredith reveal but I didn’t know she was fully aware and talking and controlling red lyrium templars?!?!?! I thought she was just gonna be the red crystal and that artifact was going to wake her up but I guess she’s already awake, so maybe it’s to give her a body again? IDK IDK.

Unfortunately I didn’t love Miriam. She’s just the type of character I don’t generally like... kinda 2edgy4u y’know? I mean she’s basically a female Fenris but the difference is we had a whole-ass game to get to know him and see his personality emerge and see him work through his trauma but this entire series was over SO fast that I never felt like I knew her at all. I knew Hira was going to betray them because there was absolutely no fucking way Fairbanks was the real traitor and if you played Inquisition you probably knew that too. It sucks he died but at least he wasn’t a bastard. Oh and speaking of Hira I just find it so funny that she was like “yeah I asked the Inquisition to go WAR with Tevinter and they said NO can you believe?!” and I’m like YES I can believe, what the fuck? Are you kidding me?? You think the Inquisition - who are already being scrutinized and accused of being power hungry and are dealing with mountains of other things - are going to start a war with one of the most powerful nations in Thedas? I have to laugh.

Rezaren had the personality of a piece of wet bread and I was zero percent interested in his whiny shenanigans. Although I do appreciate how he thought that keeping the reanimated corpse of his dead slave around to chat to every now and then was NORMAL. Horrific. I actually really liked Tassia though! Because for almost the entirety of DA we’ve sort of been told that Tevinter templars are weak as kittens and are basically pointless, but Tassia was a certified boss swinging that hammer around. It was weird that we never saw her use any templar abilities though (unless I missed it?) so maybe that is sort of frowned upon in Tevinter.

The real winners here are OBVIOUSLY Lacklon and Roland omg babessssss. Roland was by far my fave character. Optimistic and heroic with just the right amount of sass so he wasn’t boring. Qwydion was... ugh ok I am on the fence with her. There were a lot of parts where I really did like her but imho they just made her a BIT too silly. Like running away screaming from the demons... girl... you’re a badass mage, what the hell was that?!

Anyway overall I give it a solid 7/10. I think I was just so excited to see something new in the DA world again /sobs, so I can overlook some of the faults. I am both terrified and excited for DA4 because I thought we would be mostly dealing with Solas and his bullshit but now we have Meredith + red templars invading Tevinter which is already struggling to repel constant Qunari invasions?? Things are not looking good for Tevinter tbh and if that means something bad happens to Dorian I will RIOT.

[onewomancitadel]

On my earlier point about DA (no spoilers), I have this extremely evil characteristic which is that I judge all media to essentially the same rubric of writing quality, despite the fact how prioritised it is varies widely medium to medium. It is laughably unfair to expect video games, for instance, to clear that sort of bar, but I guess in that case it's why Solavellan - more specifically how the relationship is recontextualised through Trespasser, and through the experience of play, especially as a romance not everybody has ever even played - so thoroughly surprised me. In that case, I think where video games get a leg up is 1. tapping into that fairytale magic so easily, and 2. the player interactivity. I'm not about to give you a lecture about ludonarrative dissonance, don't worry. I'm not silly.

Maybe point 1. is because one of my earliest memories is my dad playing Yoshi's Island, ha.

I think this is a similar problem with watching films - I'm much less cultured than I'd like to be, especially compared to film buffs - where the angle I tend to be hardest on is, again, the writing, and it's generally make or break for me. Even when all other elements manage to transcend that problem, I'm just not emotionally invested if the foundations are not there. This is also why I spent so long invested in a show made with Halo: the style and delivery matters so much less to me than the writing, and RVB used to be very funny. I'm using the most ridiculous example of this, of course; RVB, tonally, is already a very silly show, so it's not like the machinima nature of it is incongruent in any way (if anything the melodrama of S9-10 is too much for me).

Point 2. above is also why Solas is such a compelling character to me because - like the spirit/demon theory - he's a radically different character based on how you interact with him. I think his worst critics have something valuable to say as much as his most compassionate audience and I don't think you'd get nearly the same effect if everybody loved him. He's the most reviled figure of Dalish myth; you'd actually like to inspire a little revilement.

Something I mentioned offhandedly and didn't really elaborate upon as well is that to me basic writing competency is essentially the equivalent of a well-honed artisan making their craft, an upholsterer or a potter or whathaveyou, where it takes years of experiences to get it over the line on the first go. Either the thing is or isn't upholstered properly (it's hard to do) or the pot is or isn't fired (less a good example because kilns are cantankerous). The first example that came to mind, actually, is that it's kind of like a pass at Oxford undergrad: the pass itself is the mark of excellence.

This is why I don't like the people who say mean things about all the "bad" fanfic on AO3 or indeed even I need to stay my own hand in criticising the majority of what gets published (though you'd really hope the publishing industry would be more meritocratic, as an aside). It is extremely difficult to clear that line of competency; I am very in favour of democratic expression of art; so much of what you write and work at is in the hopes of one day clearing that mark. Very few people take writing seriously as a craft which needs to be developed as finely and instinctively as an artisan would.

Real artistic, transcendental excellence is kind of another question altogether, and that's where - in my view - it gets much more subjective, and I think the cultural canon really decides it post hoc, much later after the fact. It's a very personal question for my own tastes as well, because I think what reads as excellence to me is often informed by radical individuality, who is willing to go out there and take risks, that is, write stories where the villain and the hero have a lot of sex.