#to hurt solas and rook*

[waspgrave]

Why didn’t elgar’nan, god of vengeance, not kidnap the inquisitor to get back at Solas? Can u imagine? And before anyone goes ‘well My inquisitor hated solas so why would he care’, I think elgar’nan reacting to solas being idgaf you can keep them :/ would be very funny

[arlathen]

so we know that veilguard really pulls back from "minrathous is the slave capital of the world" and i just realized that only venatori are depicted as owning slaves. it's the reason they're the shadow dragons' main enemies. it's the reason the only slave we see in game (necropolis, during emmrich's recruitment quest) was brought there by the venatori. mercar literally can say to the first warden "murder? you mean the venatori cultists who enslaved those people" -- as though no one but venatori own slaves in tevinter.

because if they acknowledged that slavery is completely legal in tevinter and that the shadow dragons are supposed to be revolutionaries trying to overturn the social order, and an abolitionist archon is an INSANELY radical thing for tevinter. well. idk. that's bad for some reason? it's so weird because "slavery bad" is such a clear and easy thing to condemn and you know they realized this because they made it the main bad thing that the bad guys do. but making it an evil cult activity instead of a systemic injustice is such a choice

[bohope-chic]

“Varric is…”

IS WHAT? SAY IT YOU BALD BITCH

[talktorook]

Lucanis with Rook after Tearstone Island (or any day of the week really):

[dragon--sage]

live footage of me playing veilguard and working tirelessly to achieve a reconciliation between lavellan and solas

[durgeapologist]

due to an increase in recent negative traffic on my blog caused by a specific group of solavellan fans here who went blasting my blog on twitter/X (that nazi's app, btw. if you use that site still, i side eye you so hard) and elicited a slew of death threats to hit my inbox literally EVERY SINGLE TIME I POST OR REBLOG SOMETHING, i will be taking a small break from posting on here until this weekend.

i want to make it clear that i know i am not the nicest or most patient person with these types of people, and much of my blog reflects that. i have never minced my words or held back on exactly what i thought of that subset of the dragon age fandom, and i will continue to be that way when i return. but i do not, have not, and will not EVER condone sending death threats to people on the basis of a difference in opinions or ships. i made one response to just one of about 25 death threats that i received within the span of 48 hours. this is not including the many, many other kinds of hateful anonymous messages i also happened to receive to my inbox after they posted on twitter.

i will not sit here and drone on about this topic (i do it enough already, i know), but i need it to be known that while this specific group of solavellans is going onto other platforms and complaining viciously about my or other dreadrookers/solavellans rather callous attitudes towards them when they come on our pages to our clearly tagged critical posts, they turn right around tell us to kill ourselves while calling us egregious and vile names. dreadrookers and the solavellans who do not agree with their behavior have not sent ANY death threats of ANY kind to them. there is a clear trend that has been happening the past two weeks, and i'm a bit tired of having to go in and delete the messages that are clogging my inbox when i'm searching for genuine questions from you guys.

it's also disheartening as hell to have my content taken not only out of context but blatantly twisted and lied about on twitter/x and on reddit, when all i want to do is post my silly little reblogs of solas, my silly little critical takes on the fandom as a whole, and my silly little moodboards of dreadrook and solas. so!!! a short, sweet hiatus it shall be. i will probably lurk and like to support my mutuals, but outside of that, i am going to let their posts die down a bit so they stop coming onto my page looking for an argument with every post i make. <3

[lizzybeeee]

(Same anon) It's also just a lot harder for me because Solas in Inquisition was trying to take down the Veil in a world that was genuinely shitty to elves, mages, and spirits (nvm that until this game I was 100% sure that he was trying to do this more for the ancient elves, like why else imply there are more out there to Abelas? I guess he was just being polite?) Veilguard depicts Thedas as being largely okay with mages and spirits even outside of Tevinter and pointedly doesn't depict racism against elves outside a handful of throwaway lines. So they had him going at this with the same conviction from DAI, of a man trying to reverse the slow genocide of his people, but they've boiled his motivations down to "The Veil is unnatural" Like. How much more awesome if we could have convinced him not to destroy the world because of a culmination of choices in this game and all the others that made Thedas a kinder place idk man. ngnegnwgnf sorry for ranting in your inbox, I still liked Solas enough in this game but it was really bittersweet that they just dumbed down his motivations. I love your idea for influencing the Inky though, it definitely should have been a choice closer to the end and allowed for more variations (ideally all Inkies should have that, not just the Solavellans)

Hello again, Anon! :)

100% agree that the sanitization of the world and lore absolutely hurts Solas's motivations - especially if you look at it solely from what Veilguard gives us and with no background from previous games. All of the previous games, mostly Origins, were really effective in conveying how shit life could be for an elf - and how inbuilt this prejudice against the elves was in all aspects of Thedas.

The chant of light removing the canticle of Shartan, the march on the Dales, the struggles of the Dalish to simply live, the treatment of elves by the ruling class/chantry/ and others in general...it all painted such a bleak outlook for the elves and showed how ingrained this prejudice was in all aspects of Thedas. They had no way out - the structures of power in Thedas would fight them at every turn - which was why Solas being set up as a way for them to fight against all these systems was so compelling! You want the elves to win - but it will be at the cost of everything else if Solas goes ahead with his plan.

(You can definitely also make an argument that perhaps he's using them just to restore the world from before -> Felassan argued with him about this: to see the world as it was as real and worth improving.)

DATV felt divorced from the previous games, and its reluctance to meaningfully go into issues surrounding the lives of elves in Thedas - all the ugliness that brings - really did nothing to add to Solas's motivations for bringing down the Veil. If anything, I got the impression that he does not see anyone in Thedas as being 'real' and that he's simply doing it out of regret and to soothe his own ego/guilt. If this game wanted me to be sympathetic towards Solas it didn't do a good job of making me feel it, especially when you look at the totality of everything that Solas has done.

What I took from Trespasser was that Solas wanted to heal the wound he had left on the world - the Veil - and what he had inadvertently done to the elves. He had given everything he had to free the elven people from oppression and tyranny, only to inadvertently leave them vulnerable to the same oppression from others -> taking away their magic and long lives in the process. He was so blinded by his goal (stopping the evanuris) that he failed to see what his own actions might have wrought in the process.

Trespasser set up the 'Elven Rebellion 2.0' with a Solas who was torn between the world he once knew and the world it had become in spite of his intentions. Does he truly care about the elven people in current Thedas? Or does he just care about the world that came before? In DAI he was such a fascinating character because he could be so polarizing! People loved him! People hated him! Both were correct!

But starting the game with the ritual, sanitizing the world (no real signs of conflicts about spirits, mages, elves, anything really etc...), and simplifying his motivations to "fix fade -> be immortal/magic -> profit"...it just feels so shallow.

Solas: "Long before we met, I failed my oldest friend. She died for that failure. If I leave the Veil in place, I am destroying the world she wanted."

He spells his motivations out pretty clearly at the end and it's just...Mythal? He doesn't seem to care about the elves that are currently living in Thedas - not even Lavellan. Like you said, in Tresspasser I also got the impression that he wanted stop the slow genocide of his people. But apparently it was 'Mythal All Along'!

The lack of supporters/agents really gives him no credence to say that this is anything that the elves want - elven Rook can even call him out on it and he doesn't care. For a character whose own trauma began with bring coerced into a body he didn't want he doesn't give a shit about doing the same to thousands of other elves.

It's far less compelling, to me at least, than what I felt was set up in DAI: the Dread Wolf, god of rebellion, rallying elves after ages of systematic abuse and oppression with the goal of liberating his people and restoring the world that was - the world he inadvertantly denied them with the consequences of his actions. Instead it's just Solas doing his own thing because he's right and he needs to fix what he did wrong for Mythal.

It would have been great to be able to convince him to change his mind/ pursue another path as a result of the culmination of our actions throughout the series. It could be a nice nod to our past decisions and a nice conclusion to see the results of those choice in missives/codex entries. Same as the 'south can repel the blight' counter idea, have their be some kind of 'convince Solas to pursue another option' tally that demonstrates that this world is willing to change and he should be too.

[elvhenquyen]

[hawkepockets]

is varric a fucking ghost

[alondradina]

Trying out Febuwhump for this first time! I have been struggling with writer's block for almost a year, and this is the first time I've managed to finish anything aside from drabbles. Wish me luck getting through the rest of the prompts.

Day 1: Vocal cords

Fandom: Dragon Age/Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Pairing: Solas/Rook, Solas/f!Rook

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62697871

—

“Yes. You regret very little in your life.” His smile doesn't reach his eyes. “If only I could follow your example.”

Rook sneers and steps into his space. “Maybe don't make such shitty decisions, Solas.”

Victory has never tasted so bitter. Rook trudges through Blight ravaged paths in her search for Solas. The big fat liar. She seethes — yearning to blame him for the losses her people have suffered today — but she tamps it down. Her rage must be contained if she has any hope of winning.

Her throat burns. The orders she has desperately screamed for the past few hours have scraped her vocal cords raw. If she could drink something, maybe it would be better, but her canteen is empty and it feels like sandpaper is sliding up and down her throat. Coughing, she hands her empty canteen to a runner and prays that it will be returned to her before she has to give orders again.

She finds Solas shortly after, and watches him bat away Blight tendrils as a horse does flies: quick, forceful, and with an unnecessary amount of force. There are faster, more elegant, less wasteful ways to deal with them, but he does not care.

A tendril is slammed down right next to her, and then Solas finally appears to notice her. “Rook.”

“Solas,” she croaks, grimacing. She licks her chapped lips and meets his gaze. “Your prison couldn't even hold a mortal. How was it supposed to have contained two elvhen gods?”

“You escaped sooner than expected,” he comments. His eyes run up and down her bedraggled form. “Good. We will need to work together to defeat Elgar'nan.”

“We aren't doing shit,” she growls. “You betrayed-”

“You are free now,” he interrupts, pausing for a moment to slam another tendril away, “as planned, and now we must move on.”

“Move on?!”

Solas sighs and approaches her. “My apologies for the deception, Rook. It was necessary. I could not escape on my own, and I was needed here.”

“You were needed? We didn't need you. I was already-”

“I am pleased you overcame your regrets so quickly. I had thought it was one of your weaker emotions, and that seems to be the case.”

“Weaker?” Rook asks, holding a hand out to ward him off. “What does that mean?”

He chuckles. “The prison uses your strongest emotions to hold you. In your case, I spent weeks preparing you to take over regret in my place.”

“You said it was my weakest-?”

“Yes. You regret very little in your life.” His smile doesn't reach his eyes. “If only I could follow your example.”

Rook sneers and steps into his space. “Maybe don't make such shitty decisions, Solas.”

“I wonder what decisions you would have made, in my stead,” he counters, “had you faced what I faced.”

“Don't think-” she coughs, turning away to finish her fit before continuing, “I don't think I could do much worse, that's for sure.”

Cool fingers slide along her jaw before tilting her face to meet his gaze. “You sound unwell.”

“I'm fine,” she rasps, grabbing his wrist and attempting to pull it away.

“I have water.”

She can't keep herself from licking her lips again. “I said I'm fine.”

Finally releasing her, he holds her eyes for a moment before walking away. She glances back at her team — hoping her canteen would suddenly appear — before following him. He stops by a pack and rifles through it before pulling out a canteen.

“I already said no.”

“It does no one any good if you lose your voice this early in the fight.” He holds it out to her.

“Early in the fight,” she mutters, refusing to look at him. “The fighting never stops.”

“That seems to be the way of this world.”

She glowers at him. “Doesn't sound like your world was much better, Fen’harel.”

He sloshes the water around and she wishes she could just throttle him. Still not looking at him, she snatches the canteen.

The first sip of water she swishes to wet her mouth. She spits it out and rinses her mouth again before finally swallowing. Taking careful sips, she steadfastly ignores Solas until she finishes. Carefully closing the canteen, she hands it back.

“Better?”

“My throat doesn't feel like sandpaper anymore,” she shrugs.

He frowns. “Your voice is still-”

“I don't know how many times I have to say I'm fi-”

“At least twice more,” he teases, “until you can convince yourself, at the very least.”

“Well, I'm not thirsty anymore. The rest will go away at some point. We have a god to fight, Solas.”

“I could soothe your throat,” he offers.

“Solas, if you don't leave it be-”

He reaches towards her throat. “Let me help you, Rook. It is a small enough atonement.”

She huffs. “Will that be the end of it?”

“Yes.”

She sighs irritably, but doesn't resist when his hand loosely clasps her throat. The magic is cool and somehow feels more refreshing than the water had been.

“Done,” he says finally. She opens her eyes — when had they closed? — to see his smug face. His fingers squeeze gently before slowly releasing. “It is good that you still trust me.”

“Trust is a strong word.”

He laughs. “Perhaps it is. Come, we must discuss our strategy with the others.”

Watching him go, she holds a hand to her throat. It is all too easy to fall back into their easy comradery from before the betrayal. She can't afford to fall prey to him again.

[360iris]

“Blessed be the children, each and every one come to know their god through some senseless act of violence— I am no good nor evil, simply I am, and I have come to take what is mine.”

[crossdressingdeath]

"The non-redemption endings are bad because Solas is going to get out again" is such a funny take to me. Like... guys. Gang. My friends. Who is going to let him out. None of the characters trapped in the Fade get out on their own. Rook manages to reflect on their regrets and move forward and then is rescued by their team (no one loves, trusts, respects or needs Solas enough to do that on account of his pesky habit of betraying and/or murdering his allies the second they tell him no), Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain got out because Solas started fucking with their prison and then screwed up the ritual by stabbing someone with the ritual dagger that's very sensitive to being bled on, Solas uses the blood magic bond he forged with Rook before getting locked up explicitly because he can't get out on his own. Is it possible that Solas will one day break out of the Fade? Sure, technically, although assuming it still works the same as the previous prison he'll have to self-reflect and grow as a person which a) he's shown no interest in doing and b) would lead to him being a lot less likely to attempt genocide again if he did do it. But it's at worst no more likely than redemption ending Solas changing his mind and also breaking out. I personally think Solas is done no matter what ending you pick, he's not getting out of there any time soon, but let's not pretend that the endings where Rook doesn't forgive the person who murdered their mentor, gaslit them the whole game and repeatedly stabbed them in the back and blindly assume with literally zero evidence he'll choose to do the right thing this time for the first time in millennia, gambling the fate of the world in the process, are bad, okay? Let's not start claiming that the only good ending is the one where Rook gives the person who has used literally every chance they gave him to stab them in the back another chance. Rook doesn't owe him that and the narrative does not support the claim that they somehow do or that giving it to him despite them not owing him that is the only way to get a good ending.

...So I guess that take is less funny and more infuriating but whatever.

[tethrarisms]

DAV spoilers

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Nothing against all the following characters but as a Varric fan since DA2, it feels like a punch in the stomach when you learn that his sacrifice meant absolutely nothing. Solas wouldn't stop tearing the Veil apart if not for Mythal. And if you bring your Avellan Inquisitor, it's only a plus. I'm not saying they didn't deserve a happy ending, I think Solas had an incredible redemption and it fits him to spend his eternity with his partner in the Veil.

But Varric spent a whole decade feeling responsible for Solas and did what the Inquisitor couldn't due to DAI's consequences. Harding doesn't say a word when he's gone for "plot purposes". She only addresses his death when she's bashing Solas in the final fight. Which sucks. The "villain" got his happy ending while Rook lost his mentor and one of the their friends (which I still think will be solved in a DLC but that's for another time).

Varric's death serves no purpose for the narrative whatsoever. It doesn't push Rook towards improvement because, first of all, Rook wouldn't have to go through a sudden grief if Solas didn't use blood magic to alter their mind. Rook would have forgiven themselves for Bellara/Neve and Davrin/Harding in the Veil just fine. Rook didn't know about Varric, it was a result of literal gaslight, not a personal journey like the usual protagonists go through all over media.

Oh, and what about leadership? Dude, Varric says a single statement of encouragement and that's it. Talk about underdeveloped dialogue.

Lastly, Solas doesn't even address it when he's about to complete the ritual. Varric meant nothing to Solas, and that was kinda up to interpretation in Inquisition, but not in Veilguard. Because Solas doesn't even flinch and it's not brought to the table at all.

If anything, Varric deserved more than just a Lion King cloud. It's kinda insulting, honestly. The potential Veilguard has a game is huge but it feels rushed and underdeveloped in so many points.

No shame to writers, BioWare sucks for what they did and fuck capitalism. But this decision was disappointing for how much Varric not only carried this franchise for years and was one of the main points to promote the game. It felt disrespectful even how they gave the players some hope that he would be fine.

I hate it. I really do, and that's the main reason it gets so hard for me to replay Veilguard. It's low when the narrative lies to the player (this is far from a prestigious media like, idk, Fight Club and The Sixth Sense. It makes sense for the plot. That's not the case for Veilguard).

Anyway, good for people who are able to enjoy a second experience. I'm trying but I'm still stuck at the ritual scene cause I know things will change forever :')

[wild-magic-oops]

I didn't expect a dialogue option with Solas in Act 3 to fit my Rook so perfectly but it sure did! My Rook's a human so he didn't have any prior conditioning to think something specific about the Dread Wolf.

But he is also a Shadow Dragon and parts of him respected and admired Solas for fighting against slavery, so he was indeed a little bit excited to work with him and gain his approval in some way. Ofc he was apprehensive and knew a betrayal was coming, but it still caught him off guard and it hurts.

[starwrittenfates]

OOC ;; I put in my pre-order for Dragon Age: the Veilguard!!! Halloween is going to be eventful this year! 🎃💯

[strawberry-halla]

pls comment/reblog on why i really am curious!! i love seeing everybody’s opinions 🤍