#that's gonna be a thing because i need an excuse to post more triple h

[broodwolf221]

triple checks it's the right blog this time...

so I'm having a p shitty week and I'm gonna cope by talking abt my meta for solas, mostly in terms of his personality and behavior. I have a LOT of meta abt his past and nature and future but that's... another post, lmao

some of his key and/or most interesting characteristics:

kind

selfish

reserved

arrogant

empathetic

detached

now, let's dig into these

kind: he clearly and consistently wants people to be happy or to alleviate their suffering. he's glad the inquisition helps refugees, he's glad (dialogue, not approval iirc) when you take the time to find the apostate supply caches in the hinterlands, he makes a point of connecting with every single companion, even ones who regularly degrade him. and in trespasser, he goes to extreme lengths to keep southern thedas from falling to the qun, because he wants the people - those he knows and those he doesn't - to be happy and at relative peace.

this is one of the most remarkable things he does imo, bc if he'd just let the situation develop, he'd have an absolutely clear path to achieving his goals. yes, he'd need to get the anchor another way, but that's hardly impossible. what matters is that by stopping the war, he gives the inquisition/inquisitor clearance to pursue him without distraction, while also arguably giving the qunari the ability to focus on strengthening the veil, bc i cant imagine the viddasala and her people were the only ones of all qunari to have/know of that goal

selfish: if romancing lavellan, he understands one aspect of his selfishness, because it's a relationship he should have shut down HARD. but his feelings are real... and he selfishly gives in to them, even knowing he'll break their heart. he does try to pull away, he does eventually break up with lavellan, but by then the damage is done. even the offer to remove their vallaslin is selfish in its way - he's trying to give them a piece of the truth, but instead delivers a cruelty and leaves them whether they accept or deny his offer.

but he's selfish in another important way, too: he's convinced of his own perspective. he thinks bc he literally knows more (which, yeah, tbf he does), that his pov holds more weight. he's willing to change the world bc of his guilt about it ofc, but also bc he's - selfishly, self-centered - convinced that he's RIGHT to do so. he's not traditionally selfish - in many ways he's selfless, overwhelmingly willing to sacrifice all his own chances at happiness and peace in order to restore the world - but his selfishness (which ties in with his arrogance) is shown in his self-conviction.

he makes excuses, but honestly? he could have told the inquisitor who and what he was. he could have done that! he could ask for help reconnecting the fade with the waking world. dreadwolf could be about the inquisition gathering together myriad experts and looking for ways to do it that aren't destructive. but he's so assured that his path is the right one, the only one.

and it's... a complicated selfishness, too, because part of it is that he feels like he deserves to be punished. he thinks he needs to walk this path alone not bc the inquisitor is incapable, but because 1) He Knows What's Right, and 2) He Deserves To Suffer (to alleviate his guilt about his "sins" - which is selfish in a complicated and roundabout way)

reserved: the superficial aspect of this is obvious: he's lying about his identity. but he's also reserved as part of his core character - according to him, he used to be reckless, quick to fight. I think his reserve is something he grew into, a willingness to play the long game, an understanding that information given can never be taken away. it leads to other things - a hesitance to trust, for example - but it's just a part of him now. I think even if he found someone to be 100% open with, he'd STILL be reserved by nature

arrogant: my man is an arrogant ass, no denying it. ofc he knows so much more about history than those around him, but he's also so willing to fight about it, to condescend, to trivialize. when he realizes he has a genuinely receptive audience his tone changes, so I think a lot of this stems from defensiveness and a deep familiarity with needing to justify his every expressed opinion, but... he's still an ass. his conversation with a dalish inquisitor at haven? yikes.

he's also regularly convinced that his interpretations are the correct ones. like wrt my recent post about the mages after Faded For Her, I have to assume that he thinks the inquisitor sparing them demonstrates disdain for the inherent value of spirits and their sentience, even if the real reason is a lot more complicated. he jumps to conclusions and states them like facts and it takes a lot for him to begin to deconstruct them

empathetic: this ties in with his kindness ofc, but its worth a unique mention. he is incredibly empathetic. he cares about what happens to people, to spirits, even to your enemies in a way - he talks with bull about how he doesn't like to relish his victories in combat because the people he kills could have been something else, someone else. he cares about wolves (I WONDER WHY... but also like, him being fen'harel doesn't mean he HAS to care about wolves, but he does, bc he cares about animals, too), he cares about the farmers being attacked by wolves, he cares about the refugees, he's understanding towards speaker anais and the cult that grew up around the rifts... he not only cares, he understands where people are coming from, regardless of who they are or how they behave

detached: this one lessens somewhat over the course of the game, but he's deeply, fundamentally detached to the world he woke up in and the people who inhabit it. its a little ironic when u look at his kindness and empathy, but it doesn't negate his detachment. i tend to think of him as seeing everything through a fog, feeling like he's not really there at least as much as he feels like everyone else is not really there.

not joking or exaggerating, he must have such terrible trouble with disassociation/derealization. ive seen people bring up excellent points wrt this that i dont feel a need to rehash, but suffice to say: while he still cares, everything he experiences is at a remove. this stems from shock, trauma, guilt, fear, and profound culture shock.

[helmsleys]

ᴀ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏsᴇᴛ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ ʟᴏᴏᴋs ɴɪᴄᴇ (∞)

[deanseths]

This is an advice to all my fellow Ambrollins shippers. I’ve noticed some users are spreading this sick idea that Ambrollins = abuse/abusive relationship: please, ignore them. Don’t reply to their posts, don’t let them drag you into this shit. You can take it for granted, they’re just doing it to ruin our fun. How do I know it? Because otherwise they wouldn’t tag their crap as #ambrollins, but they’re clearly looking for a fight. What makes it even more disgusting is that they’re playing the ‘abuse’ card not because they give a single fuck about this subject, but because they’re jealous that their ship isn’t getting a good booking like ours. How do I know this too? Because they’ve been polluting the tag with their shit for a while even before the storyline between Dean and Seth became canon (I regularly check the tag since 2015, so I always know what is being posted in it): at first they were yawning at them teaming up at house shows instead of Ambreigns, then they claimed they couldn’t stand Ambrollins because in their opinion it wasn’t coherent with the booking (??), and now they found this new excuse to support their ideas. Maybe they can fool the newbies and the youngest fans, but I’m not buying their shit cause I know 100% where they’re coming from. Ambrollins is not abusive just because salty shippers of other pairings say so. We all know how things went with the Shield: Seth was seduced by Triple H with dreams of glory and success, and betrayed his brothers to put his hands on the WHC title. None knows what the the Authority guys said to convince him: maybe they told him Dean and Roman were holding him down because they were jealous, or most likely, they made him believe he was he could fly higher without the burden of the team. Seth was weak as fuck. He trusted Triple H, he put his own life in his hands and for a while he was really the undisputed champion of the company. Roman stepped aside, and chose not to face Seth directly, because he always kept considering him his little brother. But Dean didn’t follow Roman’s footsteps: he literally hunted and haunted Seth for an endless time, trying to make him pay for his betrayal. This means that Dean has been chasing Seth intentionally for what he did, to steal from him the title for which he had been stabbed in the back, so he was victim and aggressor at the same time… “Your life changes when I’m your enemy”, “Your ass belongs to me”, “Seth Rollins is kinda my thing”, “You stabbed me in the back, now you’re gonna pay for it”… he was literally obsessed with Seth. Yes, they were two broken boys, each one in his own way. Their relationship was toxic because they’ve been trying to tear each other apart for years. Anyway, at some point Seth’s wonderland crumbled down when he found out he had been just a pawn in the Authority’s game. And day by day, he had to face the truth… he fucked up, and for what? For him to be replaced in the blink of an eye. Seth has already paid a high price for his betrayal, and Dean knows it. He has learnt what it means to be stabbed in the back. And this time, he’s not going after a title or a dream of success: he’s just trying to pick up the pieces and fix the mess he made. And I don’t think he thinks can do this just by saying he’s sorry, to quote some Ambrollins “shippers” I’ve seen here and there: of course the chairshots Dean took from him can’t be compared to the ones he was ready to take for his own choice, but he needed to do that because Seth is like that. Because he is right, Dean isn’t an angel. He stalked him with his vengeance for years, and eventually he took from Seth the only thing he cared about, the title, when he was expecting it the least. I think three years of attempts to destroy each other are enough: they MUST move on. Seth knows what he has done, but he is still the same cocky motherfucker he’s always been, does anyone really expect him to go down on his knees and ask Dean for forgiveness in tears? It would mean you didn’t understand a single fuck of his character, so what are we even talking about. And Dean knows what he’s doing too. He’s sick of letting the hate wear his soul. The evolution of his attitude towards Seth since his comeback was undeniable. He would have never hit Seth with his chair and not because Seth has deceived or manipulated him, but because he needs to call it quits too. Again, if you didn’t understand this after their last feud, shut the fuck up. People make mistakes. People take the wrong decisions. And it’s part of growing up to realise it and try to change for the better, and to forgive, or at least to understand, who is trying to do it. That’s what the angle between Dean and Seth is about. If people want to convince themselves that a beautiful story of friendship, betrayal, love, hate and forgiveness is a display of abuse, it’s their choice. But the only toxic thing in all this story is their attitude.