#veilguard critical perhaps

[bunabi]

I feel like I'm the odd man out but what i was actually most disappointed that Bioware has had every opportunity to bring back Sten as the Arishok but decided to put it in a codex instead. We get Varric for 3/4 games when he really doesn't need to be there but in the middle of all the very relevant Qunari drama you can't give us an Arishok Sten cameo? No? We're supposed to just read in a throw away codex that he got attacked off screen and is now serving with the Ben-Hassrath? Ok, guess I'll sit through tedious Solas monologue 987...thanks Bioware.

I wanted Sten very badly 🥲

Easily-thwarted villains and mindless mobs isn't the note I wanted to end on with the Qunari Invasion. It was one of my biggest disappointments too.

I makes me appreciate the DA2 presentation of the Qunari more. Is it perfect: no. But the Qunari being invaders doesn't detract from them being people with beliefs and thoughts worth investigating. They're 'problematic' but you look around Kirkwall and think damn what faction isn't in (Southern) Thedas. I liked that approach.

We get to know the Arishok's motivations and beliefs. We're introduced to the Tal-Vashoth and speak with one (Maraas). We learn about Seheron and the Fog Warriors through Fenris. We have a whole quest centered around a Saarebas where we learn how mages are treated under the Qun, how non-mages born from a mage-bearing womb are treated even. Ridiculous amount of depth. They didn't have to go that hard.

I finally read the Bioware portion of Blood Sweat And Pixels this morning after many years so I feel exceptionally out of my mind praising the hot hell that was DA2's development. But it really did hit all the right notes for storytelling. I hope it blows the tits clean off of new fans coming in from DAV.

[childofthestone]

HILARIOUSSSS hearing that they intended to make dragon age a billion dollar franchise. hearing how mark darrah planned for joplin and two other games but then the company got greedy and got in the way with andromeda and anthem. as sad as i am that they ruined dragon age & unhappy that joplin didnt ship(intrigued what these other games could have been with darrahs vision) i am laughing. you shot yourselves in the foot. in your haste to make money you became wil e coyote and dropped an anvil on your own head. it is cartoonish how badly this played out. extra extra read all about it

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I love the romances in datv (Neve my Beloved) but I can't get over all the talk about how it'd have the most romantic romances in the series. They aren't bad but most romantic? I wish I didnt go into it with that expectation lol

Oof. Yeah.

My opinion on Veilguard is complicated, but when it comes to the romances...? I feel that, anon. I feel that so damn hard.

The romances are one of my favorite things about a Dragon Age game because it's a choice that can, when done well, completely change your experience playthrough to playthrough, y'know?

And for me there are a handful of romances where if I don't choose them, if I do an alternate playthrough...? I miss them so goddamn much. I miss them enough that I actively struggle to even finish alternate playthroughs. That's how much they've impacted me.

I'll always hold Alistair up as like.... the romance for me. Honestly, I think DAO set the S-tier of romances with him, Leliana, Morrigan, and Zevran as far as writing goes and how interwoven their romances are with the HoF's arc and the plot... they're not just fluff that's tacked on, it's not just, "oh, if you romance them, you get one unique scene toward the end of the game, and some different dialogue!"

I could go on, and on, and on about Alistair and his romance with my Tabris. Hell, even outside of the romance, just their dynamic in the game. Their friendship! I could write essays about the little nuances and how beautiful and tragic his romance can be, and the branching paths, hhhhnnngggggg you can have so many different endings with him!

In DAO, you have many opportunities to flirt. You can give them gifts, and special gifts give you cutscenes where you actually talk about the gift you're giving them. You can set the pace of the relationship. You have different paths you can take and you can discover cute things, like okay.... for Alistair, there's the conversation where he gives you the rose. If you go out with only him in your party, and trigger that, you can get special extra dialogue because you two are alone.

Like... they thought about that. They thought about the player taking just Alistair around somewhere. Why would they? Why would you?

Unless you're roleplaying walking around Redcliffe together to gather supplies to bring back to camp and accidentally talk to him, triggering the scene on the docks.

It's little things like that, special things, that make every playthrough with a different romance feel unique. It feels like the writers put so much thought and care into every situation you'd be in, they thought about how the romance would not only affect your playthrough, but how it'd affect the character you're romancing beyond just... ending the game with a partner.

Hell, it makes you want to replay the game because if this romance was this good, what are the others like? Y'know?

Which is WHY when I heard them make the very bold claim that Veilguard would be the most romantic, I had doubts... because they're competing with Alistair. They're competing with Morrigan, Leliana, and Zevran. Not to mention literally everyone else in DA2 and DAI...... except maybe Sebastian.

If there's one thing I can say about Veilguard's romances, it's that at least they're better than Sebastian's... which is not a high bar because Sebastian's DLC, can only be romanced by a lady Hawke, and from what I've heard/seen of the romance, they don't even get a kiss...

Look, if Veilguard wasn't a Dragon Age game, I'd say the romances are fine, good even... for what they are. Because they do have good moments! They're just lacking, and in some cases, feel unfinished... like there are scenes missing.

I romanced Davrin on my first playthrough, Lucanis on my second. My third playthrough with Carver as Rook is undecided, though I'm thinking either Neve or Bellara.

With Davrin I played an elven Grey Warden, and that really enhanced his romance with me because 1. surprise, surprise, CJ really likes the Grey Wardens and when the opportunity for another Grey Wardens in love story to happen, she picked it, and 2. It felt like Nesryn and him had actual chemistry when talking about warden things, which led into feeling they had chemistry outside of that.

With Lucanis, I played a Lord of Fortune because I thought it'd be kind of funny for this himbo of a man, the literal embodiment of sunshine, to be a pirate who then falls in love with an Antivan Crow. And I have..... feelings. About Lucanis' romance. Especially as someone who also is an Andersmancer. It's good, but also not. It healed parts of me, only to then do more damage when I realized that Lucanis feels like the AO3 version of Anders who is chill and controlled and Justice is also in love with you, actually........ and that brings up conflicted feelings within me.

Looking back at these two now, I prefer Davrin's romance. But the problem with Veilguard's approach to romance, in my opinion, is not just the lack of content. It's not just the feeling that some of the companions have better chemistry with each other than they do with Rook. It's not just the weird pacing of it all.

God, how do I word this.... when I play Tabris, Alistair is crucial to her arc. Absolutely crucial. Remove the slow burn of their romance, or remove their friendship, and she's a completely different person.

When I play Ed Hawke, romancing Anders is interwoven into his arc. The playthrough wouldn't be the same if they remained friends. The impact of the ending would hit entirely different. Then, when I play Aris Hawke, romancing Isabela adds such a different flavor to the story. It's like night and day. And they're both great, that's the thing!

I think Cullen and Josephine are my favorite romances in DAI because they're not traveling companions, they're your advisors. It's different, and it adds layers to their romances. I'm in war table meetings with them. We're leading this operation together, and I find those dynamics so interesting.

In my opinion, the romances do not add anything crucial to Rook's story. At the end of my second playthrough, I wondered if I should bother trying the others out... which is not great!

Though, honestly, a criticism I have of Rook is in both playthroughs I did, they felt like the same character with different skins despite me picking different choices. Different faction, different dialogue.

Carver's run is going a little different but I think that's just my brain filling in those blanks, which.... yeah. I feel like any depth Rook and the romances had was concocted in my mind because the game didn't give me much to chew on.

So even though I did two romances that feel different, Rook remains the same in the end, and like.... that's not something I can say about HoF, Hawke, or the Inquisitor.

There's always going to be headcanon and personal writing when it comes to DA, that's how fandom works, y'know? But unlike the previous games, this actively feels unfinished, and like it expects me to finish it for them.

Yes, you get cute, flirty banter with them, and you get the scene where they go to your room... and from what I've heard Emmrich actually gets a bonus scene so like good for him.

I mean that genuinely, too. Seriously, good for him to be the standout of having an extra, romance specific scene. I haven't seen anyone mention any of the other companions getting one.

But do I feel like the romances impacted Rook to the same level of depth? No, unfortunately. And it sucks! Because I do enjoy the companions! And the bits we do get of the romances, I like!

But do not try to tell me they're the most romantic in the series because they're not, I'm so sorry. I want them to be! I want them to feel fleshed out and interwoven with Rook's arc within the actual game, and not through headcanon! I see the potential, I see the intrigue of certain Rooks with certain companions!

I could go on and on about this, and I will if anyone else asks, but yeah, anon.... I feel you.

Also, I'd like to hear other opinions on this since I've only done two of the romances, so maybe there is more depth to be found that I just don't know about. Maybe I haven't found my golden combo yet.

Plus, I just like reading about other people's experiences with DA romances, I find it super interesting.

[bees-bees-fear]

Leliana is voiced by an actual French actress, and is just speaking: wow this sounds so fake

Characters have actual real proportions, instead of hero proportions: wow this looks so weird

Characters converse like people with facets, instead of archetypes: wow this sounds so bad

Writers interact like actual human beings who make art and are inspired by feedback: wow this is so unprofessional

[supernova2395]

Not going to lie, I think the worst thing you can do to your narrative is build up to something and then not deliver it. It just devalues the rest of your story and leaves people going, “Then what was even the point of introducing this???”

[i-m-not-a-penguin]

I find it incredibly irritating how companions don't even wait a full minute to tell you what to do in a puzzle. Bellara I do not need you to tell me every freaking step of the puzzle for the ritual, thank you. There's is no "Off: options in the settings, right? It's making me hate the companions actually

[wanderingibon]

may not be emo tonight. my rook, dalish born but raised in the city + circle turned crow reconnecting w his dalish roots. the shaky sigh then going 'here goes nothing.' then the spirit thanking them and telling them this. crying in the club tonight

[acccursed]

after finishing veilguard i can say that im sad that, from what i noticed in my playthrough, the jennies were only referenced in a single equipment piece. i understand that southern thedas was not a big focus, but not letting us transfer over the choice from inquisition about the inquisitor becoming a jenny & putting the inquisitor in shadow dragon attire instead of something more unique, particularly something jenny-esque if they became a jenny, sucks! they put hawke's armour in the game, gave morrigan a new & unique outfit, but didn't bother making the inquisitor's attire more distinct beyond giving them a prosthetic arm? come on.

if i could add any origin faction to veilguard, it would be the red jennies. i just know that they're much more serious & organized than they seem with how they're portrayed & interpreted by characters in inquisition, especially with sera being so dodgy when she's getting needled about the details of the work & structure, & especially with the inquisitor becoming a red jenny in one of the epilogues of inquisition. really hoping that they have a more significant presence & role in veilguard.

[onelastkiss4you]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Just Went From A Good RPG To One Of BioWare’s Most Important Games

In light of BioWare scattering some of its most foundational veteran talent to the winds, Dragon Age: The Veilguard sure reads like something made by people who saw the writing on the wall. The RPG leaves off on a small cliffhanger that could launch players into a fifth game, but I’m skeptical that we’ll ever get it. The quickness with which publisher Electronic Arts gutted BioWare and masked it with talk of being more “agile” and “focused” shortly after it was revealed The Veilguard underperformed in the eyes of the power that be makes me wonder if BioWare was also unsure it would get to return to Thedas a fifth time. Looking back, I’m pretty convinced the team was working as if Rook’s adventure through the northern regions of this beloved fantasy world might be the last time anyone, BioWare or fan, stepped foot in it. But that may have only made me appreciate the game even more.

Yeah, I might be doomsaying, but there’s a lot of reasons to do so right now. The loss of talented people like lead writer Trick Weekes, who has been a staple in modern BioWare since the beginning of Mass Effect, or Mary Kirby who wrote characters like Varric, the biggest throughline through the Dragon Age series, doesn’t inspire confidence that EA understands the lifeblood of the studio it acquired in 2007. The Veilguard has been a divisive game for entirely legitimate reasons and the most bad-faith ones you can imagine on the internet in 2025, but my hope is that history will be kinder to it as time goes on. 

A Kotaku reader reached out to me after the news broke to ask if they should still play The Veilguard after everything that happened. My answer was that now we are probably in a better position to appreciate it for what it was: a (potentially) final word.

The Veilguard is just as much a send-off for a long-running story as it does a stepping stone for what (might) come. Its secret ending implies a new threat is lurking somewhere off in the distance but by and large, The Veilguard is about the end of an era. BioWare created an entire questline essentially writing Thedas’ history in stone, removing any ambiguity that gave life to over a decade of theory-crafting. As a long-time player, I’m glad The Veilguard solidifies the connective tissue between what sometimes felt like world of isolated cultures that lacked throughlines that made the world feel whole. But sitting your cast of weirdos down for a series of group therapy sessions unpacking the ramifications of some of the biggest lore dumps the studio has ever put to a Bluray disc isn’t the kind of narrative choice you make if you’re confident there’s still a future for the franchise. 

Unanswered questions are the foundation of sequels, and The Veilguard has an almost anxious need to stamp those out. Perhaps BioWare learned a hard lesson by leaving Dragon Age: Inquisition on a cliffhanger and didn’t want to repeat the same restriction. But The Veilguard doesn’t just wrap up its own story, it concludes several major threads dating back to Origins and feels calculated and deliberate. If BioWare’s goal with The Veilguard was to bring almost everything to a definitive end, the thematic note it leaves this world on acts as a closing graf summing up a thesis the series hopes to convey.

Pushing away the bigotry that has followed The Veilguard like a starving rat digging through trash, one of the most common criticisms I heard directed against the game was that it lacked a certain thorny disposition that was prevalent in the first three games. Everyone in the titular party generally seems to like each other, there aren’t real ethical and philosophical conflicts between the group, and the spats that do arise are more akin to the arguments you probably get into with your best friends. It’s a new dynamic for the series. The Veilguard doesn’t feel like coworkers as The Inquisition did or the disparate group who barely tolerated each other we followed in Dragon Age II. They are a friend group who, despite coming from different backgrounds, factions, and places, are pretty much on the same page about what the world should be. They’re united by a common goal, sure, but at the core of each of their lived experiences is a desire for the world to be better.

This rose-colored view of leftism doesn’t work for everyone. At its worst, The Veilguard can be saccharine to the point of giving you a cavity, which is far from what people have come to expect from a series in which Fenris and Anders didn’t care if the other lived or died. It also bleeds into a perceived softening of the universe. Factions like the Antivan Crows have essentially become the Bat Family with no mention of the whole child slavery thing that was our first introduction to them back in Origins. The Lords of Fortune, a new pirate faction, goes to great lengths to make sure you know that they’re not like the other pirates who steal from other cultures, among other things. I joked to a friend once that The Veilguard is a game terrified of getting canceled, and as such a lot of the grit and grime has been washed off for something shiny and polished. 

That is the more critical lens to view the way The Veilguard’s sanitation of Thedas. To an extent, I agree. We learned so much about how the enigmatic country of the Tevinter Imperium was a place built upon slavery and blood sacrifice, only for us to conveniently hang out in the common poverty-stricken areas that are affected by the corrupt politics we only hear about in sidequests and codex entries. But decisions like setting The Veilguard’s Tevinter stories in the slums of Dogtown gives the game and its writers a place to make a more definitive statement, rather than existing in the often frustrating centrism Dragon Age loved to tout for three games.

I have a lot of pain points I can shout out in the Dragon Age series, but I don’t think one has stuck in my craw the way the end of Anders rivalry relationship goes down in Dragon Age II. This is a tortured radical mage who is willing to give his life to fight for the freedom of those who have been born into a corrupt system led by the policing Templars. And yet, if you’ve followed his rivalry path, Anders will turn against the mages he, not five minutes ago, did some light terrorism trying to free. In Inquisition, this conflict of ideals and traditions comes to a head, but you’re able to essentially wipe it all under the rug as you absorb one faction or the other into your forces. So often Dragon Age treats its conflicts and worldviews as toys for the player to slam against one another, shaping the world as they see fit, and bending even the most fiercely devoted radical to your whims. And yes, there are some notable exceptions to this rule, but when it came to world-shifting moments of change, Dragon Age always seemed scared to assert that the player might be wrong. Mages and Templars, oppressed and oppressors, were the same in the eyes of the game, each worthy of the same level of scrutiny.

Before The Veilguard, I often felt Dragon Age didn’t actually believe in anything. Its characters did, but as a text, Dragon Age often felt so preoccupied with empowering the player’s decisions that it felt like Thedas would never actually get better, no matter how much you fought for it. While it may lack the same prickly dynamics and the grey morality that became synonymous with the series, The Veilguard’s doesn’t just believe that the world is full of greys and let you pick which shade you’re more comfortable with. It’s the most wholeheartedly the Dragon Age universe has declared that the world of Thedas can be better than it was before.

Essentially retconning the Antivan Crows to a family of superheroes is taking a hammer to the problem, whereas characters like Neve Gallus, a mage private eye with a duty-bound love for her city and its people, are the scalpel with which BioWare shifts its vision of how the world of Thedas can change. Taash explores their identity through the lens of Dragon Age’s longstanding Qunari culture, known for its rigidness in the face of an ever-changing world, and comes out the other end a new person, defined entirely by their own views and defying others. Harding finds out the truth behind how the dwarves were severed from magic and still remembers that she believes in the good in people. The heroes of The Veilguard have seen the corruption win out, and yet never stop believing that something greater is possible. It's not even an option in The Veilguard's eyes. The downtrodden will be protected, the oppressed will live proudly, and those who have been wronged will find new life.

That belief is what makes The Veilguard a frustrating RPG, to some. It’s so unyielding in its belief that Thedas and everyone who inhabits it can be better that it doesn’t really entertain you complicating the narrative. Rook can come from plenty of different backgrounds, make decisions that will affect thousands of people, but they can never really be an evil bastard. If they did, it would fundamentally undermine one of the game’s most pivotal moments. In the eleventh hour, Dragon Age mainstay Varric Tethras is revealed to have died in the opening hour, and essentially leaves all his hopes and dreams on the shoulders of Rook. After our hero is banished to the Fade and forced to confront their regrets in a mission gone south, Varric’s spirit sends Rook on their way to save the day one last time. He does so with a hearty chuckle, saying he doesn’t need to wish you good luck because “you already have everything you need.” He is, of course, referring to the friends you have calling to you from beyond the Fade. 

Varric, the narrator of Dragon Age, uses his final word to declare a belief that things will be okay. This isn’t because Rook is the chosen one destined to save the world, but because they have found people who are unified by one thing: a need to fight for a better world. But that’s what makes it compelling as a possibly final Dragon Age game. Reaching the end of a universe’s arc and being wholly uninterested in leaving it desecrated by hubris or prejudice is a bold claim on BioWare’s part. It takes some authorship away from the player, but in return, it leaves the world of Thedas in a better place than we found it.

The Veilguard is an idealistic game, but it’s one that BioWare has earned the right to make. Dragon Age’s legacy has been one of constantly shifting identity, at least two counts of development hell, and a desire to gives players a sandbox to roleplay in. Perhaps, as Dragon Age likely comes to a close, it’s better to leave Dragon Age with a game as optimistic as the people who made it. I can’t think of a more appropriate finale than one that represents the world its creators hope to see, even as the world we live in now gives us every reason to fall to despair.

In my review for The Veilguard I signed off expressing hope for BioWare’s future that feels a bit naive in retrospect. Would a divisive but undeniably polished RPG that felt true to the studio’s history be enough when, after 10 years of development, rich suits were probably looking for a decisive cultural moment? That optimism was just about a video game. Having lived through the past 32 years, most of the optimism I’ve ever held feels naive to look back on. I think I’m losing hope that the world will get any better. But even if we haven’t reached The Veilguard’s idealized vision, I’ll take some comfort in knowing someone previously at BioWare still believes it’s possible. - ken shepard, shepardcdr.bsky.social

[mythalism]

i think whats so interesting about the severe fumble of the dragon age elves is how i get the feeling that the devs underestimated how many people identify so strongly with them, even outside of the cultures they are most often cited as analogous to. you dont have to be indigenous or jewish to see yourself or your family or your people in their struggle. anyone who has ever experienced racism, xenophobia, religious persecution, or any sort of social and economic discrimination can find themselves reflected in the elves of thedas. anyone who has experienced poverty. anyone who has ever experienced the threat of sexual violence. perhaps not all of the experience would resonate but some aspect of it would. and even if they weren't so universally relatable, they should have been treated better for the way they do so clearly mimic real world experiences of genocide, racism and discrimination and the implications of veilguard's message to just "forget the past and move on" is frankly disgusting when viewed as an answer to the same questions faced daily by the real world cultures they reflect, and yesterday's anon showed that brilliantly.

but im also fascinated by the thought process behind how they just got so readily written off as an irrelevant monolith. it feels like they thought it would make no difference for players to lose this major point of connection to the world. epler's comment about how the "elves had their time to shine" haunts my nightmares. where are they getting these ideas from like genuinely? i dont understand where this conception of the players being sick of elves comes from. sick of solas, sure. even ancient elves. this is a widely expressed sentiment all over the internet and i don't blame people for it. but modern elves? city elves and enslaved elves and new dalish clans? are people actually saying this somewhere? or did they just conflate people being sick of how over-exposed solas and ancient elves were with being tired of elves as a people? did they think that requests for more dwarf and qunari lore meant people wanted the elves to be narratively absent? and did they really try to remedy that with giving titan/harding a throwaway line about how the elves have "thrived" while they suffered? and not actually really giving the dwarves or qunari anything substantial anyway? or did they fear criticism for writing them "wrong" and decided it was better to barely write them at all? did they think the players just wouldn't care? did they think at all?

[lithosaurus]

Not to vague at anyone but I've been seeing a lot of posts responding to Veilguard criticism that entirely miss the point of those criticisms.

No, my frustration with Rook's characterization isn't that there are limitations to a video games PC. It's that there are scant options to RP in the RPG and fewer options to make choices beyond 'do you want to do this quest y/n?' in a game series which previously bent over backwards to explore the idea of how far is too far for the greater good.

No, my frustration with the way the world seems to have changed is not that the there is a change or even that those changes are underexplained. It's that those changes feel more like reboots that don't want to continue the narrative of the previous games. Sure, the differences in the Crows could be chocked up to a differences in the Houses, or the change in how Circles are described could be because how the Mage-Templar war ended but A) that's never actually addressed or even lamp shaded B) the worldstate removal means that the changes can't be a consequence for past actions because it happened regardless of whatever occurred in the last three games!

No, the number of times the word 'okay' is used doesn't inherently make the game poorly written. The change in the writing voice, anachronist word choices, and flattening of characters into marvel quip speak is just best quantified by word choice.

Perhaps most frustratingly, No, my trans ass isn't somehow scandalized by the mere existence of a nonbinary person. There is plenty of transphobic bs being flung at the game, at Taash, and at the devs but acting like being critical of how Taash is written is exclusively due to transphobia just isn't true and it does boil my blood just a little when I see a post claiming that everyone critical of Taash's character is antitrans.

[kaija-rayne-author]

I need to look to see if there's 'veilguard positive' tags I can block because OMFG. I feel so fucking gaslit every time I see a positive post claiming the crafting was good, the writing was good, the art was good, because, no, objectively, they were not. (I say that as an author, editor, diversity consultant, and media critic, not just a consumer.)

Every writer who worked on VG has either resigned or been laid off. The creative director has been demoted to a much lower position at a different EA company, Busche 'resigned' which in corporate speak means she was probably asked to. The sales numbers are so abysmal they've essentially declared DA a dead IP. (These would be business signals that no, it wasn’t good. Why? Good games sell well. Usually quickly. Especially in AAA markets.)

IF VG had been a good game, those people would still have jobs, and Bioware would be celebrating. Because that's how sales and business works.

The art assets are reused everywhere, the writing is absolutely shite, the racism isn't a bug, it's a feature, the characters are cardboard cut outs (which is an upgrade from paper dolls but not by much), the therapy speak is utterly nauseating, I want to punch Rook regularly, there is so little role playing potential in a supposed role playing game that it's laughable, the plot is honestly mind-bogglingly bad, they bastardized beloved characters so they were barely recognizable facsimiles of themselves, and they shat on the Lore so badly.

Deep breath. When we talk about media, we need to consider things like genre (dragon age is supposed to be dark fantasy, not cozy the world is disnified perfect sim.) Cozy games are great! I love several. Dragon Age was not and never should've tried to be a cozy therapy sim. We need to consider things like 'what did previous entries in the series look and feel like', and we need to stick to that. Some changes are expected and encouraged because things evolve, people leave, and new blood is brought in. Technology improves. What we can't do if we want to retain the committed fans is pull a complete 180 and make something that seems like the vast majority of older DA fans hate with a bloody passion.

It's shit. All of it. Veilguard was not, objectively, a good game. No part of it was objectively good (except perhaps Emmrich's romance, which still feels about 80% complete).

And you know what? It's perfectly fine if you like something shitty. Hell, I utterly love b and c rate fantasy cheese movies. I love Van Helsing for example. And I know it's not good. I just don't care.

But I never slog on in posts trying to convince people it was actually objectively good, because objectively it most certainly is not.

Aiya, just accept that you loved a not great thing. Not everything we consume has to be objectively good for us to love it.

Veilguard might’ve been fine as a mid-rate on quality hack n'slash generic fantasy adventure game.

It is not even remotely an objectively good dragon age game. It failed, spectacularly, on every front.

UGH.

People bitch and moan about people who hated it being awful. But at least most of us use the critical tags so you don't have to read it.

Nah, you know who I've seen being awful the most? The positive crowd who loved it. Have the same decency we have and tag your damned posts as Veilguard positive. So the people who didn't like it don't have to read your stuff either.

[krems-chair]

I've been thinking a lot today about how easily people condemn Solas for making the choices he did or for so regularly refusing the help and love his friends or a romanced Lavellan extended to him and how that's a very easy thing to do from behind a screen in a fictional game where you are able to (with very few exceptions) curate a world in which your allies are loyal and your decisions will go the way you'd like them to.

And yeah, it's a game and that's kind of the point, but if I were to look at it a little more deeply (and who am I kidding, I got back on this website exclusively to process the aftermath of Veilguard) I'd say that there's so much to be found in wondering if the protagonists in any of the other games would have fared better in similar conditions.

Apparently I can't stop making long posts, so buckle in.

What would Morrigan have become in a world where the Warden never stumbled upon her cottage with Flemeth, if she never got the chance to see more of the world and decide what she wanted out of it? With just her mother (who, coincidentally in this Solas-y discussion is also kind of Mythal) and no support, who is to say what she would have unleashed upon the Korcari Wilds one day when the confines of her cage became too much?

What about Leliana? She, too, suffered at the hands of a very controlling abuser who tried to convince her that one lifestyle was all that her future held. What do we think she would have become if not for a chance meeting in Lothering with someone who could help her face down the woman that molded her?

Fenris, a character MANY people are just fine with was incredibly ready to kill a mage on sight if need be, no questions asked. Where do we think his story goes if he doesn't have someone in his corner early on enough in the game? If he doesn't get caught by Danarius, he's almost certainly going to end up on a murder spree, and he doesn't even have Justice whispering in his head to do it.

Cullen. Just all of him. It's an absolute miracle he hasn't snapped by the time you encounter him in Inquistion, and even then you get the benefit of intervening at a critical point in his story several times over.

Almost every other character could face this analysis and I think we'd reach a result that suggests perhaps the only thing keeping them lovable is your playable character's investment in their well-being.

Enter Solas. We don't meet him when he's twenty to thirty something and on the precipice of falling down a dark path. He's been there for literal millennia already, and with the exception of one close friend he's been alone. And not even Felassan is enough because of the years Mythal had prior to that friendship to make Solas exactly who she needed him to be.

I've had shit friends before that aren't just good at isolating people, they're naturals. I barely made it through high school with my mental health in place (in fact, looking back, it almost certainly wasn't). When you think you've got a true friend and they need something of you, it's so easy to blindly follow them because you think your love is enough to mark someone's soul as trustworthy. Solas doesn't learn that lesson until it's too late, and even when he does he can't turn back: the spirit that was once Wisdom has been exposed to several of the worst ancient elves to ever exist and now he has to stand his ground rather than let it all fall, because that is what Pride would dictate. Admitting that the person you gave your love and labor and time to is a monster is hard. And he was alone.

Give me Morrigan after centuries with her mother. Show me Leliana after the years have become a blur and the only voice whispering in her ear is Marjolaine's. Show me the innocent mages that don't make it through if all Fenris has for years and years and years are the scars Danaris left him and the means to make more. Show me Cullen if he stays in a chain of command under a Knight Commander who knows exactly what he fears and holds it over his head for so long he forgets what it was like to be an excited kid begging the templars for training because he just wants to keep people safe.

We get companions in these games who are broken by the time they're twenty. Solas has spent thousands of years in servitude to a cause of a woman he believed to be his only friend. He doesn't know who he is without her influence, anymore, only exists physically in the first place because she asked it of him and then asked again and again and again. He doesn't have a witty band of merry fools to pull him out of that cycle. He has Felassan, but he has him during war after war after war in the hopes of freeing others from the very situation that torments him.

Trauma from war affects everyone touched by it, nevermind the fact that Solas is actively responsible for saving the lives of thousands and feels each life like a weight around his neck because maybe he can save them like he cannot save himself. We should always be worried about the people trying to do the most good. Who is looking out for them? Why are they so determined to help others? Could it be that it's something they wish others had done for them?

Solas certainly feels comradery with Felassan from working together to free slaves from the very people he helped put in power because Mythal told him it would be okay only to leave him with the pieces, but even the Solas that Felassan knows has been turned into an attack dog shying away from the touch of the very person it desires to be near above all others by the time their relationship forms.

The fact that Solas is able to try and show the Inquisitor who he is at all is a miracle as far as I'm concerned, a sign of a peaceful spirit of Wisdom who loves knowledge for the sake of it finally sensing that there might be a chance to embrace its nature again.

Yeah, if you give him what he has come to expect from people with power, if you let near-absolute power over the masses corrupt you, he's going to bristle and try to shut your inquisitor down.

But if you show him even the smallest bit of kindness? If you treat him like the starving wolf he talks about and feed him instead of fighting him? God, it shatters his entire existence.

It's called a cycle of abuse for a reason. Finding friendship, finding the love of your long-ass life can be the first step in realizing there's better out there. But the time it takes to learn that? When you're too weary to even reach out for help in the first place and afraid of every kind word or gesture because you've never known such tenderness (on a platonic OR romantic level, both matter so so much) before?

Part of the compelling tragedy of Solas is that it's almost Orpheus-like how he knows what he has been made into and still cannot stop himself from yearning for more, from turning around to see if just this once something has changed. You can't convince me that he hasn't spent years hoping that someone will hear the legend of the Dread Wolf and see it for what it is, a leash the Evanuris created for Mythal's whipping boy to ensure that even if he ever escapes them, the people he fought to save will hate him. And I cannot blame him for the shock and terror that consumes him when he realizes someone finally has.

You give me any of dragon age companions after the amount of time Solas spent under Mythal's thumb without your character's intervention and you tell me how that looks.

You tell me if they're able to change at the first sign of something that feels too good to be true.

And then, I want you to tell me they're any less worthy of trying to save, especially when you know how good their best can be.

Solas might be hard for some fans to love, but it's only because he serves as the perfect representation of the beast we are all capable of becoming when the love that sustains us, assuming we receive any at all, is laced with poison.

The journey out of that place, out of a literal prison of regret, is brutal, and I'm thrilled that even with the many things about Veilguard I'm still struggling with, we have the chance to let Solas try again with the help of those who love him not because he never fell down, but because they believe in the beauty of a future where he gets back up again.

[the-rebel-archivist]

Finally finished Veilguard a few days ago and took some time to process and put my thoughts in order. In brief: 8/10 game as a whole, a really fantastic gaming experience, but 5 or even 4/10 as a dragon age game since it does no meaningful exploration of any nuance or moral complexity and seems to have forgotten what made Thedas distinct. My thoughts, critical and positive, coming from a place of love for the series with little to no spoilers:

Thedas has always been special to me because it was a nuanced world. Different groups had different opinions based on their pasts. City elves and the dalish had divergent histories. Injustice against magic was common, but you could understand the justification for it even when you didn’t agree. Now, the worldbuilding is flattened. A mageocracy is fine, it’s only bad apples. Slavery is never addressed. City and dalish elves are basically the same but one lives in the forest. There’s no conflict about what’s best from each individuals’ perception, all groups are monoliths.

“Elves won’t follow the gods just because they’re elves,” yes they would, in past lore. Perhaps not all but some would - these are their Creators. The game refuses to deal with religious belief in any meaningful way, to the point that I don't know if its impact is fully understood. Dalish religion is as much about cultural preservation as religion and it would be CRUSHING to lose that connection to the past when it had been all you could cling to for thousands of years.

And no, seeking out relics of Arlathan would not make up for the foundation of your society shattering and what that would mean to the dalish. Bellara being guilty that her gods are evil is not the takeaway I expected when I thought the dalish would explore that everything they believed was a lie. I'd also like to briefly comment on how an elf can comment that they weren’t raised dalish but adopted their tattoos. Their closed practice tattoos. Closed even to city elves unless they fully joined a clan. Removing cultural boundaries didn’t make the material less 'problematic', it just created a new blind spot.

“They’d never sanitize the Crows” I said before release. Assassins who walked the line between murderer and hero depending on perspective. But in this game they give you absolute truth: they’re freedom fighters. Responsible government who, the mob is benevolent and that is never subverted. They see themselves as the 'good guys' and so they are.

“They wouldn’t put powerful mages in charge of the shadow dragons” I said. “Surely they will explore the nuance of Neve having the privilege of magic in a mageocracy even when she comes from a lower class beyond ‘everyone is welcome in the shadow dragons’.” “Surely if Maevaris is connected her intersectionality as a magister and altus and trans woman will come up - not what Tevinter expects, helping with change, but still privileged and upper class. Surely low class non mages and slaves would be leading the Shadow Dragons, not the powerful being benevolent.”

But no. All factions in the game are black and white, good and evil, no moral complexity. The bad people want power and collect bad people who want power and only bad people do bad things. The antagonists I liked most were the ones with a motivation beyond simply power and they were few.

And that’s setting aside the fact that all of the mystery and fantasy was removed from the setting by the end. The things that mattered before, the religious conflicts, the approaches to history? All false or meaningless now that we know absolute truth. Everything that set Dragon Age apart from generic fantasy was flattened. All of the lore for the world that I had spent hours, days, years in and creating fanfic for became simple groups of good and bad, subjectivity replaced by objective truth. It’s not a world I want to unravel and explore anymore.

That hurts more than the slap in the face that was every cameo and past reference. If they wanted a soft reboot, why include them at all? Every time I saw or heard about a past character or event I felt hurt and angry and it actively harmed my experience of the game. When the choices are pared down to only do something "meaningful" with them and then that meaningful thing is a codex that had been so disdained in dev comments? I do feel pretty let down. Especially when that codex isn’t even personalized.

They never use Rook or the inquisitor’s first name in text once. Vocal I get, but no codex? The Inquisitor, a person depersonalized into a symbol, signing off “Yrs. The Inquisitor” when we input their name in CC was a twist of the knife I didn’t expect. It’s like every time I lower my expectations to grant grace they need to be lowered yet again.

Similarly, the romances in the “most romantic game yet” are paper thin throughout the game depending on your choice, with few chances to truly connect on an emotional level and have deep conversations in some routes. It’s not all about kissing but having the chance to say how you feel, or try to.

But that’s part of a larger problem, that this is a “found family” but Rook is the outsider in it. Rook isn’t asked how they’re handling things or about who they are or what they want except by Solas. The team needs them to fix problems but has little interest in giving back. The companions are lovely, but I can’t help wishing they were friends with me and not just each other. Or wanted to romance me and not just each other, as they begin to flirt before I can and have more banter comments than the player romance. At least if no one got me I know Davrin got me.

These last comments are the reason it’s 8/10 as a game rather than 10/10 for me - the lore I care about but others won’t. The lack of connection is a genuine issue, along with how unbalanced it is depending on romance. I just feel sad at the lost potential to reflect and gain support from companions.

On a positive note, this is the most fun Dragon Age game I’ve ever played. The gameplay is top notch and combat is so fluid and fun. I felt excited to fight rather than dreading the next battle. Really getting into the roleplay of a slippery rogue

The environments are so gorgeous. Lighting, animation, level design, sound design, all spectacular. I’m bad with maps and yet I never got lost and always managed to find my way around. Secret passages to treasure were just the right length to be satisfying. The puzzles were exactly the right amount of investment for the reward. I never felt frustrated by them but also not disappointed by the simple ones, there was a good balance. I had a lot of fun uncovering them. So many areas looked like a perfect representation of thedosian places I had never been to and wanted to visit.

Every time I was in the necropolis it felt like coming home. Maybe it’s because the lore was the most similar to past lore, maybe it’s just because it was cool, but I loved being there. I loved the wisps most of all. And I loved Emmrich’s journey and sympathetic exploration of death. The Hossberg Wetlands were also a standout area. Absolutely horrible (complimentary). Evka and Antoine my beloveds and the environment storytelling was fantastic. Like a hideous combination of the Fallow Mire and Chateau d’Onterre and I was so there for it. Davrin’s story broke my last flight loving heart.

The set pieces and narrative flow in the major battles and main story missions is really wonderful. I also did enjoy the faction reactivity, even if there were few chances to explore the intersectionality of being a particular lineage with a particular faction. I’ll make our House proud Viago!

It’s such a fun game that when I play I can almost forget all of the things that I dislike until a codex or cameo punches me in the face. It has such great gameplay that I can finally discuss DA with my partner who refused to play the other games in the series. But what a monkey’s paw. I know from their previous work that they can foster nuance. From the art book that their instincts were there from the beginning. But somewhere after multiple reboots they made a world with contradiction and complexity removed, more reactive to fan discourse than to telling a complex narrative.

It kills me because if the nuance and subjectivity and moral complexity had been there, I would have considered this the best Dragon Age game ever made. It will always be the most fun. But it is legitimately more fun for people who don’t know lore than people who do, and that is soul-crushing. It's the most beautiful Thedas has ever been, and the least like Thedas it has ever felt.

I’ve played it once. I already started a replay. I enjoy the game a lot when I am playing it, overall. But I miss Thedas, and I miss that the “world worth saving” that I cared for is a slate wiped clean and this new world is a more simplistic place.

[rooksolas]

An Analysis and Reinterpretaion of Veilguard Solas, as a Man, Broken

I have been through many stages of grief with Solas' character as portrayed in Veilguard. I have bargained, I have argued, and I have finally reached acceptance, through much thought and consideration, by coming to an understanding that the Solas we see in Veilguard is completely different from the one we see at the end of Trespasser: I'd like to analyze Veilguard Solas from a different perspective, and discuss an interpretation of this Solas, as a man who has already given up on his journey, but is bound to continue, fueled by his regrets and pride.

(Please note, I am fully aware this essay is fueled by a fair amount of copium, but I am taking the writing in Veilguard at face value and in good faith. While I have my criticisms with the writing, I have made peace with the story the devs have provided to us with the resources they were given, and I'll be engaging with it accordingly, filling in gaps where I can. Will I be reaching, at times? Yes, but sometimes we need to reach to find closure.)

Truly, many thoughts, and an unbelievable amount of spoilers under the cut:

I'd like to consider, for this reinterpretation, at the end of Trespasser, Solas regrets leaving the Inquisitor, and not allowing himself to stop his path of destruction there, almost immediately. For all the masking he does, putting forward that he has the strength to betray them and destroy the world, once he is alone, he regrets it so deeply it breaks him, fully. HERE is when he actually decides to stop his quest to tear down the Veil- though he cannot admit that to himself, or anyone. He is still too proud to stray from his path, but his mind has already been changed, based on his time in the Inquisition, and his re-connection with the Inquisitor.

Solas continues through the next 10 years, too prideful to stray from his path, but unable to fully commit or put effort into his plans. He gains the respect of the Agents of Fen'harel, but walks away from them. He completes the lyrium dagger, as the Evanuris do need to be moved to a different prison , but he delays and delays and delays the moment of his ritual. He visits the Inquisitor in dreams, mournfully. He eats alone in the Crossroads. He writes the Inquisitor a letter, but cannot even muster the strength to send it.

In previous versions of the game, we can find concept art that depicts Solas manipulating Tevinter and the Qunari into an all-out war so he can perform a blood magic ritual as a last resort. Veilguard Solas is not that Solas. He's simply not willing to go that far for his goal, anymore. He walks forward, each trudging step taking him towards the inevitable end.

He learns that his friend Varric is currently searching for him, and that he's connected with someone named Rook. He learns about this "Rook", but does nothing to stop them from approaching his ritual. No wards to protect him, no traps, save for the demons spilling out. He left a perfect Eluvian path from Minrathous straight to his ritual site in Arlathan.

Perhaps a part of Solas wants to be destroyed, wants a hero to come fell him. Perhaps he feels that is the way out. Not consciously, not fully, but perhaps that's why he leaves himself so open.

When Varric approaches him, Solas does not use his power to turn him to stone. He also does not let him convince him, however- after all, he's already resigned to this fate. He's told the love of his life that even their words cannot stray him from his path, so he does not stop his actions here. He begins his ritual, and the fight with Varric ensues. He kills Varric, his friend, and it feels inevitable: just another murder in the path of blood the Dread Wolf walks. Mythal, Felassan, Varric.

The worst possible thing for Solas to experience in this moment, I would say, would be to be stuck in a place where he is incapable of action, and is forced to face monuments of his past failures with every passing, endless second, without even the escape of sleep to give him respite. Does he see the faces of those he loved? The people he knew, before the Veil was created: the ones he feels he has failed, yet again, by wishing to give up the fight? Does he see Felassan, desperately trying to convince him that the elves of today are people, and deserve a world to live in? Does he slowly come to realize he believes him, now?

As Ghilan'nain and Elgarnan have escaped, however, Solas is forced to change. When he and Rook share the Fade, he does what he is very practiced in doing: he puts on a mask. He becomes the trickster god Rook expects, and is startled by them matching his wit and passion.

He, effectively, Locks In, because he knows what the Evanuris will do to this world. On one hand, there's the element of Solas not wanting people to suffer, even if he's going to destroy their world (as seen in his handling of the Qunari invasion in Trespasser, etc.) But for this reading, I think there is another, unconcious reason for him to help: he expects this world to remain, and does not Want it destroyed. (There's also a secret, third reason: fuck the Evanuris we need to Get those guys) (and FUCK Elgarnan in particular).

So he helps Rook on their journey, all the while planning for a way out of this hell-prison, where he has to face everything he's ever done in every moment Rook is not present. While Solas presents the Varric hallucination as manipulation, and I believe it is, I also interpret it as a half-baked apology on Solas' end. Regret that he took Varric from this world, and from Rook, and letting him live on in this strange, twisted way, for both himself and Rook. Funny that Varric tells Solas that none of his plans work out, and even his plan to recreate Varric fails because of his regret and love for his friend.

So, Solas helps Rook. He guides them through their path, he encourages when necessary, he prods when Rook needs to show commitment. While we don't know how much Solas can see through Rook's eyes, he is at least aware of their party, and watches them grow, along with Rook. Does their connection with their teammates remind him of anyone? Does he see their friendship, their passion to save the world, and is forced to face the question of his commitment to destroying this world one more time?

While Solas does, on occasion, try to let Rook in on his thought process, the idea of joining Solas or completely seeing his point in tearing down the Veil is absent from the game. Again, if we're just interpreting what's in the game, I think that perhaps, Solas does not offer that option or insight to his path because he does not Want to convince Rook. It is possible, in Trespasser, for the Inquisitor to ask to join him, but he denies them. This is a similar denial, though we can interpret his complete absence of this choice as Solas' true unwillingness to tear down the Veil. If this Solas was ruthless? Would he not worm his way into Rook's head, and find a way to pull them closer to his side? But he does not- doesn't even try. Perhaps, yes, because he knows Rook would say no- but also, perhaps, because he does not want to give them that option, for fear he would succeed.

He helps them rescue the Dalish, and faces off against Elgarnan, all while Rook continues on their path, learning more about Solas through the Crossroads. While I won't go into too much detail of the murals, as many people have discussed Solas' past and his relationships, I think Mythal and his relationship to her is very important. I think sometimes, interpretations of her relationship with him are very one-sided, and I think an important aspect of Solas' character is that his choices are his own. He can be manipulated into them, especially when he is younger, but Solas is not capable of viewing those choices as coerced. He is Wisdom, he is Pride, and he believes that everything he does is of his accord: that's why he holds every action as his own regret. He regrets joining the world in physical form, he regrets stealing the Titan's dreams from them, but he lets the burden of guilt fall on him, even if the blame lies jointly with someone else. This is part of his Pride, the part of him that he cannot see is acting god-like, that his actions are worthy and correct because he feels their consequences so deeply. It is of course, not grounded in reality, but he is so deep in his regrets that he cannot see that his burden does not make him any more righteous than any other. That is, of course, until his burden breaks him, collapses on top of him.

All throughout the game, Solas plots to exit the Fade Prison, and succeeds after Rook kills Ghilan'nain. He throws them in his place, and adds that life to his list of regrets once more. But I think it's interesting what Solas does directly after this- he goes to the Shadow Dragons and provides aid. He HAS the lyrium dagger. The world is in chaos! Even with the threat of Elgarnan, I think it's fascinating that Solas does not take the chance to tear down the Veil, then, and instead goes directly to being the Fen'harel we all know and love: helping people harmed by Elgarnan's tyranny. I'll admit this is a bit of a weaker argument: you could fully say that Solas would not tear down the Veil while Elgarnan is still alive (or is physically unable to, due to Elgarnan's life force sustaining the Veil, though he tries the same thing at the beginning of the game), but I find it fascinating.

I also find it fascinating that in Solas' conversation with Rook, he does frame his actions as 'trying to save the world'- not HIS world, no reference to the world pre-Veil, the world he currently finds himself in. Could this be more manipulation tactics on Rook? Yes, and it probably is! But it is fascinating.

He continues to lie to Rook, and goes so far to swears above all else, very emphatically, that the Veil will not come down by his hand. We learn later that he is lying, that this is one more betrayal, but it does make me wonder if, for just a moment, he believed it. Maybe, in that moment, there was a small part of him that exhaled, that accepted that he could finally give up this path, to stop Elgarnan. Perhaps, even in that moment, he considered a world where he was free, even if he knew it was a lie, that Elgarnan's death would bring forth what the Dread Wolf desired anyway.

In the final scene, Rook defeats Elgarnan, and Solas reveals his betrayal. I have watched this sequence so many times, and I am going to mainly be discussing the redeem ending (and of course, the Inquisitor joining him in the Fade).

Solas, at this point, is on the verge of collapse: beaten and broken, and, almost apologetically, reveals his final betrayal to Rook. The way his lines are delivered in this scene are so exhausted, as if he is compelled to do this final, terrible act. As if, despite his regrets, fate has brought him so close to his goal that he cannot bear to stop now. His arguments are weak. He cannot even bring himself to finish justifying his actions. Compared to his detailed explanations he provided the Inquisitor, all Rook gets is "When you see the old world restored…" He can't even bring himself to finish his sentence. He must simply act, because that is what the Dread Wolf has wanted, for so long, and he is finally here, and there is nothing else for him to do.

When Rook freely gives him the Lyrium dagger, and asks him to stop… I truly believe he almost does. He stares at the dagger, holds it gingerly, fiddles with it. Walks towards the steps alone, slowly, thinking. Considering. Weighing his arguments. For a moment, Rook has him. Then, his next line.

"To stop those would dishonor those I have wronged to come this far."

This line solidifies Veilguard Solas for me. It is directly referencing the Inquisitor. This Solas is changed- he is no longer doing this for his people. He understands this world is worth saving, but cannot bring himself to stop. He has lied, and cheated, and betrayed again and again and again. This is the path he chose- to stop now would mean it was useless. Pointless. More regret for him to settle deep within himself. He cannot bring himself to stop, even when he agrees with Rook- because of his pride, and his regret.

But the Inquisitor is there, to staunch his pride. They forgive him, completely and fully. They look at him, and say the time he spent, the people he harmed: they matter. Of course they mattered. But it is not too late to revert to mortality. You do not have to act as a god, any longer. I forgive you as a man. I am here, and I see through your pride, and I forgive you. Let the world forgive you, too.

And this does affect him. This does bring him closer, but it is not enough. His pride has fallen, but his regrets, his endless regrets, will not let him escape. There is simply too much pain in his heart, for the elven people, for what they have lost, and for Mythal, his oldest friend, who betrayed him in turn, who was killed by the Evanuris and killed by him. In this section, she represents everything lost: he is speaking both of literal Mythal, and of the Elven world in general.

When Mythal appears, it breaks him. I'd like to propose a different interpretation to this scene than its face meaning. Mythal is literally his god, his creator, his friend, all of these things, and she is before him, and he weeps. He offers her the Lyrium dagger to kill him, but she stays her hand. Instead, she offers to share the blame with Solas, and releases him from her service. I think there's another element to be discussed here. I don't think it's a literal 'release of service', but, an absolution for Solas' regrets.

Solas has never been part of the Evanuris, or the Forgotten Ones. He has always been a man among gods, and a god among men. Mythal's speech to Solas reads to me as her encouraging Solas to move forward, that what happened in the past is past, and that he is not bound to his sins any more. Mythal, Solas' goddess, who he literally killed, tells Solas that he is released from her service, released from the service of the Elven people, and that he can move forward, without regret. She, a god, forgives him, a man, and tells him he is free.

Immediately, the Inquisitor reinforces this statment:

"There is no fate but the love we share"

The fate that was writ for Solas: the need to tear down the Veil, to make up for all of his regrets, has been broken. "The love we share" can be, literally, the love Solas and Lavellan share, but can also be read as love for the world, that he discovered through his journeys and his experiences with the Inquisitor and Rook. They and he both know that love is real, and is the first step forward to his future.

When he cuts his hand, he almost cannot believe it himself. He turns to the Veil tear, and to those around him, and, so quickly it almost reads as impulsive, he cuts himself. As if he knows: if he does not do it now, he will not have the strength to. As if he is scared that he will fall into his pride and his regrets again. But he succeeds: he cuts himself willingly, he makes his final choice, and he accepts it, finally.

He makes the choice to atone: not bound by his regrets, but for the love for this world, a world he is finally choosing. And when the Inquisitor joins him, he is not too proud to deny them again. He is a man, once again, a man capable of change, of love, and of a new fate.

Veilguard Solas is not Trespasser Solas. While I will always be sad we did not get that version, the regretful but cuthroat, sentimental yet steady Solas that we expected and deserved, I have come to an understanding with Veilguard Solas. I see him as a man that has already resigned to his failure, but is pushed forward by his pride and regret, searching for a way to stop. And I am glad he does, and I am glad that he gets a happy ending. I am glad we have an ending to his story, even if the story is different than what we expected.

[ephemeralinstance]

Solas, Rook, and Mirroring

One important thing we learned about Solas in Inquisition is that he mirrors: if you approach him with ego, he responds with sarcasm and cutting words, but if you approach him with openness and curiosity, he responds with humility and kindness.  And this is very much carried through to Veilguard: it's simply less obvious there, because Rook is only able to approach Solas as an enemy, so Solas always mirrors by treating Rook as an enemy. This isn't a criticism of Rook, of course: given the circumstances of their meeting, it's natural that they see Solas first and foremost as a threat. But it's important to Solas' characterization in the game that even if you choose the nicest dialogue options, Rook makes no secret of the fact that they see Solas that way. For example, Rook never asks Solas about his motivations for taking down the Veil, and instead projects assumptions on him, insisting repeatedly that he was trying to 'destroy the world.' They also make no attempt to treat him with kindness: is Solas suffering from the isolation? Is he starving to death in the prison? Rook could have asked, but they never do. And perhaps most importantly, Rook never makes any mention of getting Solas out of the prison: it seems clear that they intend to leave Solas trapped there forever. Here, it's easy to forget how truly desperate Solas must be, because through it all he maintains his composed and even smug facade; he doesn't want Rook to see his vulnerability. As we know from Inquisition, he's only snarky like this with people he doesn't like and doesn't trust: it's the same dynamic he has with Vivienne, and in his early dialogues with Dorian and Iron Bull. From that point of view, it's clear that Solas is trading verbal jabs with Rook precisely as a way of keeping them at a distance. But the reality is that he's trapped alone in a prison designed to psychologically torture him, and since Rook clearly isn't going to release him, he'll be trapped alone forever unless he finds a way out. For a man whose greatest fear is dying alone, this must be a terrible prospect. This is why I find it hard to really blame Solas for what he does to Rook - it's hurtful and unkind, yes, but it's his only way out of an eternity of torment, and who among us would not take desperate measures to escape that? Moreover, it's here that Solas' actions towards Rook most clearly mirror those of Rook towards Solas. Rook intended to leave Solas trapped in the prison forever; so Solas literally switches them, leaving Rook trapped there instead. Rook doesn't show kindness toward Solas, so Solas responds with unkindness towards Rook. And although what Solas does is in a superficial sense a 'betrayal,' in many ways it isn't really a betrayal, because you can only betray friends or allies, and Solas is not either of those things to Rook: they might have worked together out of necessity, but ultimately Rook treats Solas as an enemy, and so that's what he becomes. All of this makes me very curious about what might have happened if Rook had treated Solas differently. For the sake of the plot, clearly it was necessary that Rook should treat Solas as an enemy, so Solas could mirror that back. But I wonder what might have happened if Rook had showed kindness, or had some curiosity about Solas' motivations, or even been willing to discuss with Solas some options for eventually getting him out of the prison. By the logic of Solas as a mirror, this would have necessarily changed Solas' behaviour, and thus there might have been a different outcome. How might the ending might have looked if Rook had genuinely tried to befriend Solas? Could there have been a different way out for both of them?