willowswail

[willowswail]

"I sat beside you while you slept," 

Lavellan tells him with a knowing smile the moment he finally stirs from his long, recuperative sleep in the Fade.

What she actually means is… 

“Let’s go back to the start.”

[willowswail]

I have never read a more poetic account of this scene. It’s just phenomenal! And here I thought I was done crying over Crestwood…

You have become important to me, more important than I could have imagined.

[willowswail]

Amazing!

Here it is my lovelies 💜 my own "Memories of a duet" animation. Solas playing his harpsichord on those lonely nights at the Lighthouse…

watch YT version for better 2k quality :)

[willowswail]

I was recently extremely fortunate enough to win an art giveaway from @rosenrotxiii​ and I asked for a scene from my fic Stolen Moments.

What I received was more than I ever imagined. I don’t think I’ll ever recover. A million, million, million thank yous. Please go check out their work at rosenrotXIII here on tumblr, twitter, ko-fi, and redbubble; it’ll be the best thing you do all day.

[willowswail]

The final song in the Solavellan ending, when Lost Elf reappears, that is not on the soundtrack

[willowswail]

Music has such an immersive power... Listening to a playlist I’ve put together over the years made me realize how strong my personal connection is to Solas, Lavellan and their beautifully written love story. This certainly has to do with the fact that Solas is one of the most complex and multilayered characters I have ever come across in a video game. But my Lavellan also holds a special place in my heart, similar to how I feel about my favourite characters in books. You know, those fictional entities that can feel as familiar and dear as a real friend.

So I thought I might share this (very long) playlist. with all of you, my fellow Solasmancers. 

The stories you tell, the art you create, and the ideas you share are also what made this journey so wonderful. Thank you!

Dareth Shiral, Bellanaris...

Part One

Part Two

[willowswail]

I made this for fun right after I finished reading Tevinter Nights back in 2020, and then I completely forgot about it.

[willowswail]

A little Solavellan sketch

[willowswail]

So, my fellow Solavellans, what are your top 3 Solavellan songs? 

You can't pick "Hallelujah" because it's "canon." The same goes for the music from the film "Once." (I think “Falling Slowly” and “If You Want Me” stand out.) For reference, check out this article

My picks:

“No Light, No Light” by Florence and The Machine after Trespasser

“Orpheus” by Sara Bareilles after Veilguard. It’s hauntingly beautiful and so perfectly fitting both for the solavellan ending and their story as a whole.

“My Love Will Never Die” by by AG and Claire Wyndham everywhere in between

[willowswail]

Hope.

After the screenshot I took in the game, I had to make a drawing of it.

[willowswail]

The Mr Darcy reference...

Solas' love language is protecting Lavellan (from his fate)

"It'd be kinder in a long run"

"I- can't!"

"i cannot do that to you vhenan"

"ar ghilas vir banal"

while he yearns to be with her, haunted her very dreams cuz every second without her was agony, now he pleads with his eyes for her to join him

"you shouldn't, i am ashamed, a sinner, a betrayer and undeserving of your love but i am also a selfish man"

"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you"

[willowswail]

"An old pain from before, when everything sang the same."

No, I don’t ever think about the fact that Solas is the last of his kind and singing an ancient song alone until Lavellan reunites with him and shows him she learned to sing as he does so he has his duet partner after thousands of years alone.

Definitely don’t turn it over in my head constantly. 🥹

[willowswail]

The lovers ✨

[willowswail]

I agree with you on the Solavellan ending. I love the angst and tragedy and I'm eating the idea of Solas and Lavellan having a lot to unpack once in the fade. Dramatic confrontations, tears, breakdowns and a slow road to forgiveness,. Delicious food. But I'm really annoyed with a portion of the fandom that seems to just gloss over the fact that Solas killed Varric, someone who was always kind to Lavellan and was even her friend. And even if you don't like Varric personally he is in canon a relatively decent person who tried to reach out to Solas on a compassionate level. Then he used a blood magic puppet of him to manipulate Rook... IDK the way that seems to mean little to nothing to a lot of Solavellans kind of bothers me. I'm not here to tell anyone how they can or can't play but the takes have been so bad. The infantilization, excuses and woobification of our boy are so egregious. Solas is complex and morally gray. Why would we be going through the effort of redeeming him if he wasn't doing things that would require redemption in the first place? I've felt really disconnected from the rest of the fandom because of all of the softening of his character people have been doing and it's refreshing to hear a take from someone who loves Solas but doesn't want to defang him.

Thanks for this thoughtful reply to this post! Sorry this took awhile, but I've been thinking of what I wanted to say. Long and spoiler-riddled reply below, and I don't even know how relevant it is to your reply, Nonny. Sorry!

I think A Lot of folks have spent the last 10 years rotating him in their heads like one throws a clay pot, molding him into something he could be based on what we knew about him. But, we didn't necessarily account for the other forms he could take. And some folks are very resistant to who he's canonically become by Veilguard. Because it's not a good form, he got Worse™ in his decade away from friends and love (shocker!), and it's hard to reconcile this version of him with the ones we may have made.

I get all of that. But I also LOVE that. It means he could still surprise me, and I got to experience this weird duality of love/hate I didn't expect to feel toward him. I got to see his lies in real time, know he was lying because I KNOW HIM, and go, "oh, you little shit (affectionate)". Like, that's just FUN! Which, last time I checked was in fact the point of video games.

I love that he is unpredictable and dangerous in this game. That we finally see him go all out, and use every skill and trick he has. That is THRILLING, especially because he's more dangerous and lethal and ruthless than I personally expected. Which... Is my fault. I should have expected it, because look what he did to Felassan. Look how he so easily killed all those Qunari in Trespasser. Look what he did with those spirits of chaos and disruption. Look what he did to the Titans! I should have known better, the games and books showed me time and again what he was capable of. I just didn't want to believe it.

I've seen some posts talking about how Lavellan approaches Solas at the very last confrontation. How carefully she goes up the stairs towards him. I've seen several interpretations of it, but there's one I haven't seen (which could be because I'm not hanging out in the Solavellan tag much these days).

She takes those stairs slowly, as if approaching a spooked horse, because the last time someone climbed a set of stairs to talk him down from his ritual, he killed them. And I don't think for one second Lavellan believes, if she handles this poorly, he won't do the same to her.

And I think she is 100% right. He would, perhaps on "accident" as he claims to Neve was the case with Varric (debatable - seemed pretty intentional if maybe a bit impulsive from here). But I firmly believe there is a world where Solas would stab his vhenan if he had to and certain conditions hadn't been met (and yes that would utterly destroy him).

She walks up those stairs to him, her vhenan, knowing this is it. Their final stand. She will save him from himself, whatever it takes, and she is prepared to die at his hands if it comes to that. And it so easily COULD HAVE.

I don't know. I just think that Veilguard gave us SO MUCH more insight into Solas and there's so much there to chew on. I think we're going to be able to go back through all the games and codices and so many little details are going to fit together and complete a puzzle we didn't even know we were making.

After all of this, I still have so much to think on 😂. I'm going to be living in Thedas for another decade at this rate!

Good. I don't ever want to leave.

[willowswail]

"Vhenan, I've missed you terribly."

[willowswail]

attention all bg3 players who have also played any dragon age game!! (which is probably everyone, let’s be real)

im conducting an experiment, so if everyone could please reblog with their romance choices for both games

regards

[willowswail]

Soooooo after the new details that have been revealed about Veilguard, how do we all imagine a Solavellan reunion is going down? Trapped in the fade together? Lighthouse makeout sessions? A very sad mural dedicated to his Vhenan? My brain is infested with new headcanons.