#the layers in the writing of Solas in Inquisition just make my head spin

[cussundria-nerd-kneal]

THIS THIS THIS--

My gods, the layers just keep going! I remember someone saying "Blackwall is RIGHT THERE, but the bald twig elf is the most saught after??" And... yeah. This post touches on the surface of why Solas is so facinating, let alone his romance. There's only so much you can dig into with Blackwall- who is a lobely character and I love very much.

But with Solas... you can write multiple 10 paged essays on him, with so many different themes. You can dig and keep digging, and the intrigue surrounding him seemingly never ends. Again, you can write essays on so many topics alone surrounding him, but what this post is discussing...

I think Inquisition was truly the first time that Solas had a chance to experience being 'mortal' since he took on a physical form. The first time there were no expectations of him (or, at least the godly grandure expectations). He HAD to slow down, take things easy, and really fight hard in tiny battles. Fights that he could win with a twitch of his eye now required him to scramble out a shield spell before he would get skeward. That's HUMBLING, and at the same time... freeing. No one coward in his presence, no one deferred to him in reverence, he was just Some Dude that "talked about the Fade too much." He got to experience growing so FRUSTRATED with a fellow elf that outright scorned their heritage that he swore at her, and she in turn filled his bedroll with lizards--lizards! But what a amusingly mundane novelty. Getting bested by a silly prank. Who would ever do something so contrite to him back in his time? No one.

And then there is the Inquisitor... Fuck, tgat "They changed themselves to please him" hit me like a TRUCK. I never saw that scene that way... but I can't argue against it! I don't even think Trick Weekes meant for that parellel beween another loved one making him change for their pleasure and him changing Lavellan for his pleasure to be intentional, but it IS there. Solas really was only thinking about himself that scene. Between wanting to confess everything, chickening out, and then dropping on her that the heritage she wears are Slave markings... I don't he thought for one second about her wants or needs. Until she became upset and anguished over thst revelation that he realizes how much the truth hurt her. But even then... get rid of the marking, you get rid of the reminder, right? And then he can just forget about everything else again. But he can't. He's already hurt Lavellan with his selfishiness. Sleeping with her now, while she was oblivious to WHAT he is would hurt her even more. Let alone realizing that he did the very thing Mythal had done to him, and she was just as unknowing as he was, back then.

Just incredible writing. And to think.... the Solas romance was a last minute add on. What the frick could this have looked like it the romance had proper time to be REALLY fleshed out???

in light of veilguard, the valleslin removal scene as solas's turning point is fascinating to me

up until that moment, he has spent inquisition indulging in quasi-denial. he's lost a good proportion of his power. he has no authority. no one fears him or respects him. during that time, he is not and cannot be fen'harel

can you imagine how free he must have felt? he can't do anything about the veil in his current state. he tried, but it didn't work, so now he has to help fix the mess with corypheus before he can deal with the veil. that burden has been at least temporarily lifted from him

so he focuses on the present crisis. he does what he can: he fights alongside his allies (friends) and supports the inquisitor (vhenan) with his knowledge (wisdom). he is and can be solas

but etched into the skin of the woman he's grown to love is a horrible reminder of his true duty. he looks at her and sees either the tyranny of one of the evanuris or the debt he owes to mythal. and he desperately wants to erase that reminder. he tells himself that he wants this for her sake, so that when he tells her the truth and they face the future together, they will stand as equals

but he is so focused on what her valleslin means to him that he has barely given any consideration to what it might mean to her

and in the moments after, whether she has (perhaps somewhat reluctantly) accepted or refused, the realization hits him: he just encouraged her to change herself to please him

just as mythal encouraged him to take a physical body to please her

(when he first displayed his physical form, do you think mythal gently touched his cheek and said, "you are so beautiful"?)

and the spell he's been living under breaks. all that comfortable denial comes crashing down around him. he has not been solas for millennia. he is and always will be fen'harel

and he will not drag the woman he loves down with him