#solavellan heaven actually

[rosieofcorona]

solavellan team i am about to fix your life (MASSIVE veilguard spoilers under the cut tho so pls look away if you don't want them)

for those of us who were wondering about mythal vs. lavellan, from the solas expert themselves: bellamuerte333.bsky.social: In the Solavellan ending, it says that Solas is Lavellan's true love. I know you've said she represents his future, but do you think she's his true love also? trickweekes.bsky.social: Yes. We framed it the way we did because the Inquisitor was your character last game, and because some people, we imagined, were doing this to give the Inquisitor the happy ever after she deserved, not Solas.

[notmeowse]

Solavellan ending and why I hate it

Major Veilguard endgame spoilers under the cut.

I beat the game two days ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about that ending. I'm not going to get into the rest of the game's flaws. They've been covered at length. But all of those issues aside, the one perfect, untouchable thing I thought I had left as the game drew to a close was the Solavellan ending. After all, Trick wrote the original Solavellan romance and the incredible continuation of it in Trespasser. As lead writer, they were directly responsible for making it happen. I thought we had this in the bag.

So on one hand, my favorite Dragon Age romance finally reunited and disintegrated off into the sunset.

On the other hand, he did not choose her.

This is what ruined it for me. I know a lot of people have issues with her sacrificing her life to join him in the Fade, but that was really a secondary issue for me.

What was the point of their entire relationship if, in the end, when it REALLY counted, he was never going to choose Lavellan over tearing down the Veil? Why did it take Mythal, who he actually killed in the last game in order to take her power, to convince him? Where's the romance in that?

This literally just turned into the story of Lavellan and the elven god who did not love her enough.

Okay, yes, the gamified reason it takes Mythal to convince him is because Lavellan was tacked onto an existing avenue of dealing with Solas rather than being given her own separate option, right? At the end of the game you have the choice to either fight him, trick him, or (if the Mythal-related criteria is met) invoke the essence of Mythal contained in the statue. No Bring Out The Big Guns, Lavellan option.

In my opinion, she should have been the fourth option, only available to players that have an Inquisitor that romanced Solas and encouraged Lavellan to reunite with him mid-game. It would have required about as much effort to do this as it did to have him turn her down once again (which, I maintain defeats the entire purpose of the story being told here). That would have been the absolute easiest fix to this fucking mess.

I understand why Lavellan wasn't counted among his regrets and therefore wasn't in the Lighthouse murals (because he doesn't actually regret falling in love with her) and I acknowledge that getting real closure from Mythal is important to Solas's story, and that it did have its place in that ending scene. Whether she was a lover or a mother to him isn't really the issue here -- it's the fact that she holds sway over him where Lavellan apparently does not. Despite the fact that, again, he killed Mythal in the previous game, despite the fact that he couldn't bring himself to kill the Inquisitor for the anchor, despite the fact that Lavellan was the one single thing in the world that made him really want to walk away from his plans.

(Why wasn't the "I release you from my service" a conversation had between him and Flemythal back in Inquisition? And why is that essence of Flemythal (who now exists in Morrigan) suddenly so chill and pro-Veil? Do we not remember the reckoning that will shake the very heavens? The She was betrayed as I was betrayed, as the world was betrayed? I will see her avenged? No payoff? None? There's so much wrong and bad writing to unpack there, but this is still a Solavellan post.)

Back to him wanting to turn away from his grand plan. The fundamental difference between Mythal and Lavellan, in my opinion, is the way each of them saw him. Mythal asked him to change for her, to leave the Fade, to commit atrocities with her out of love and service. Lavellan only ever loved him as a man, never once asking him to change for her, never asking him to be anything other than himself. In the time they were together, he was able to be the person he wanted to be. It took a very specific set of circumstances and a very specific person that had to fall into place for that romance to happen, which is arguably what made her so special, and what made their time together even more so. It followed, especially with what we know now, that he would want to drop his grand plan to be with her.

In comes Veilguard, which introduced a parallel between Solas/Mythal and Solavellan. In the second memory, we discover that Mythal never once chose Solas over her duty to elvhenan (even when he begged her to lay it down and run away with him) and dragged him along with her to commit unspeakable atrocities (in her words, she broke him). Solas (at that point in the game, when we were witnessing the memories) had yet to choose Lavellan over his crusade, but quite literally loved her too much to bring her along with him. He would not let her do that to herself, he would not do to her what Mythal did to him.

Here's where I feel like I'm losing my mind, because I thought the point of that mural was to foreshadow him eventually choosing Lavellan, as he is very much not Mythal, and is very much looking for a reason to lay it down, to be proven wrong. I also thought the blurb in the Inquisitor character creation menu (who did you romance) was foreshadowing it, as well as the mid-game choice Rook can make to encourage her to reunite with him and change his heart.

So why didn't it happen? I can only assume because they didn't actually want to have any of our choices carry over, let alone the Solavellan option (which they should have realized from the start was a bad call and also fucking impossible to manage given that the game is a direct sequel to Inquisition). The fact that Lavellan is tacked onto an already existing scene rather than being given her own is evidence of this. However, even if she had to be tacked onto the Mythal scene and not given her own, a simple reordering of the events would have fixed the fucking ending. So it could have gone two (very easily manageable and not too much extra) ways:

Remove the part where he turns her down. Remove the entire thing. Morrimythal could have flown up to him before the Inquisitor even arrived on scene, we could have had our statue moment, and just when he thinks he's going to be all alone behind the Veil, Lavellan shows up, they reunite, and she goes with him. (Easiest way for Bioware to fix it imo)

Lav acts as the ace up our sleeve, a fourth option (and a second option to make him lay it down) instead of using the statue to redeem him. Mythal releases him from her service AFTER he chooses Lavellan, thereby releasing him from his guilt over her. I prefer this one. It should have been this. They could have walked away, they could have tied themselves to the Veil, either way works.

Now, I am among those that think the Veil should have come down, which would have rendered this entire thing moot, had it happened. But since Bioware is dead-set on maintaining the status quo in Thedas, it should have been this instead.

In writing this I wonder if I've been completely delusional over their relationship, but going by the reactions to this ending, it seems that what we got was not at all expected.

[arcann]

talking about how, depending on how veilguard treats solas, it's either going to become videogame rise of skywalker (it tries to please everyone, everyone walks away disappointed), solavellan heaven (derogatory) or something actually good that analyzes his attitudes and still concludes that he did more harm than anything else (as shown in inquisition, nights of tevinter stories and the comics) and comparing him to kylo ren and emet/hades.

obviously rise of the skywalker was for kylo ren.

solavellan heaven was what happened with emet.

[freesidexjunkie]

People you'd like to get to know better

Thank you @dutifullylazybread for tagging me! I never get to play tag games 🥹 it's an honor just to be here among such illustrious company 💕

✨Favorite ships✨

Ahhhh this is going to be so hard to narrow down considering how hard I'm capable of simping and shipping... so let's start with things I've either written or wanna start writing

Nathaniel Howe X Cousland DAO; durgetash for CERTAIN; rolan x tav BG3; solavellan DAI; im also a real sucker for tamlen x mahariel but content for that seems to be a bit scarce. Idk, there's certainly a lot more but I'm currently on a very strong fantasy kick.

✨Last film✨

So last actual feature length film? Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker. Was it good? Uh. Do I recommend it? Yes. Fun little Cassandra backstory and reminds me of Killer Bean. I guess this is like, their attempt at a show in between DA2 and DAI, kinda like a much less refined Absolution? But if we're counting series, then Cunk on Earth last night (philomena my beloved you're a treasure)

✨Last song✨

Surprising absolutely no one, it's Hozier. Like Real People Do. I am a simple woman, I see longing and angst and I go feral.

✨Currently reading✨

For school, reading Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton. For pleasure, reading Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. For fics, I am currently obsessed with @dutifullylazybread's ongoing Rolan fic (go read it RIGHT NOW).

✨Craving✨

So. We went to a bakery on Saturday that had these chai scones and really good iced lattes and that's all I've wanted since then. If you're near Richmond, it's Minglewood Bake Shop and it smells like walking into heaven. Also saw many cute dogs while there, 10/10 perfect restaurant.

Tagging... AHHHH hold on hold on. @queeronaquest was already tagged but I second that, she's great. Also tagging @arlathvhenan and @ddxcrow, and @angelorgy (if you guys feel up to it)

[defiledtomb]

you and elfsplaining are so precious and adorable omg your friendship is goals; and i mean the entire solavellan hell seems very unified

@elfsplaining did you see this, my darling!!! 🌹💟And, solavellan hell is actually heaven, fyi.