Basically anything and everything that makes me giggle, smile, think, and/or cry goes on here. Mostly includes Dragon Age stuff, Tolkien stuff, Marvel stuff, Star Wars stuff, and whatever else I'll happen to become obsessed with. Also I rarely tag spoilers, so beware.
Superman losing his composure only when people shrug off the lives of others. Doesn’t matter how well he knows them. Doesn’t matter if they’re even human.
He gets upset at the Justice Gang for brutally killing a rampaging Kaiju and not even attempting to find a way to move it or at least euthanize it more humanely.
The only time he raises his voice during Lois’ interview is when she digs into his interference in geopolitics, because people would have died if he hadn’t acted. The only time he yells at Luthor is when Luthor abducts Krypto. The only time he cries is when Luthor murders someone he barely even knew.
He saves a fucking squirrel for god’s sake. We’re so back.
Inquisition's "Bad Future" and its Relationship to Solas' POV
please do not add hate to this post, bring up the art book, or bring up the books/comics. thank you!
if you decide to recruit the mages to help seal the breach, then the inquisitor and dorian will be plunged into a "bad future", going forward a year
there is no way to proceed without "resetting" the timeline, without putting it back to the moment that they were flung into the future. but during the bad future, leliana says - accurately - that while dorian and the inquisitor see this almost as a bad dream, a thing to be undone, that it was real. their hurt was real. their joy was real. they existed in that year
and we as players are made complicit in erasing the entirety of that existence
this puts us in solas' position! this shows us his fundamental perspective!
he woke a year before the events of inquisiton, to a world that he, too, felt needed to be "reset". like the inquisitor and dorian, he saw the current state of the world as an intolerable deviation from what should be, and was willing to sacrifice people - as the inquisitor and dorian did - in order to put it back on the right path
granted, the world was in great peril in this bad future. the inquisition itself was destroyed. maybe many of those in southern ferelden would have welcomed the chance to have this all "undone"...
but what of those beyond? somewhere, a child was born in that year, and then erased. not killed, to be remembered, but fully erased from the course of history, made into something that never existed. somewhere in the world, someone did something that meant a great deal to them or to others in that year: again, that action was erased. they cannot be remembered, it cannot be remembered, it is gone
so, did the world need to be reset? i mean... that was probably the safest bet, if you want the world itself/the cultures as a whole/the people as a whole to have the best chance of survival
which, again, is kinda solas' thing. he's not out here just mercilessly killing for its own sake. he openly resents having to kill anybody, even enemies, although resenting it has certainly not stayed his hand
solas thought it would be necessary, which is something i've talked about before:
Solas and Veilfall: Why it Was Necessary... Until it Wasn't
Solas and Veilfall; Not a Hero, Not a Selfish Monster
"People are always dying. It is what they do." (contains an analysis of this bad future timeline as well!)
and what he was doing was necessary - perhaps not all of it (was tearing down the veil necessary or desired? it's unclear!) - but certainly dealing with the evanuris was necessary. even flemythal, who discouraged him from tearing down the veil, admitted that dealing with the "gods" was a necessary action. even the veilguard believe that what solas did in the time of arlathan was just and right
in the bad magic future, we are solas. we are waking to a world rendered horrible, a miserable experience compared to that which we knew. but, really, what all do we see? redcliffe castle. we hear about more, but it's just hearsay. in-game, it clearly doesn't take more than a day to erase that year in its entirety
what if the corruption was contained? what if there was an effort being mounted against it, one which might have been successful? what if all that remained of ferelden and orlais had joined forces? what if the dwarves had regained their ancestral magic somehow? what if spirits freely interacted with the world outside of this area of prime corruption?
hell, put all that aside: what if the corruption was false? what if everything we experience in that bad future was the work of a demon, or of alexius himself? what if having the inquisitor and dorian "undo" what he had done was his final effort to save felix? what if he created a horrific showpiece that presented a nightmare as reality and forced them to change it back?
is any of that likely? probably not! but the thing is: the inquisitor and dorian do not and cannot know
just as solas did not and could not know... in the beginning!
had his initial plan succeeded, he would have been as willing as the inquisitor and dorian to take that step. as confident that, even with the costs, it was right, it was just, it was necessary
i'm pretty sure more people do the mage route than the templar route. but whatever the analytics may say, certainly many people have done the mage route and have played through this entire narrative, up to and including erasing it and then continuing on with the game
and, narratively, it prepares us for solas' announcement. and it draws a comparison between the inquisitor and dorian and solas himself
and the thing is... the inquisitor and dorian remember that. as two individuals opposed to solas in some manner in canon, they also have to carry forward the knowledge that, in somewhat similar circumstances, they made the choice that solas tried to make. it is entirely likely that they bury this awareness, that they cover it, that they try to forget... but their actions remain, and the unknown cost remains, even though it has been erased
If a picture's worth a thousand words, then doesn't this image honestly say it all?
You've got Solas once again reaching out to Mythal, offering her fair warning concerning her fellow Evanuris' abuse of the blight, and hoping she'll finally listen to reason.
Along with his delusional hope that after all this time she might actually want to be with him and give up her false godhood. Which, of course, doesn't happen.
Mythal won't even give up her "godhood" in death.
Instead, Mythal brushes off his concern, turns away from him, ignores his offer to be together, and says that if his claims are true then she (alone) will put the others in their place.
Doesn't that just sum up the whole relationship right there? It's one of the most unhealthy habits Solas has - clinging to the hope that Mythal is still the woman/spirit he once knew, rather than accepting her for the woman she has become.
It's so painfully obvious (to us players especially and even those within the game, namely Felassan, Elgar'nan, and Mythal) that he loved her so much more than she ever loved him.
“Solas always thought Mythal would join us eventually, that she was better than the rest of the Evanuris. He made this place so she would be comfortable once she joined the rebellion. Now it’s too late.” -Felessan, a refuge for Mythal
“For whatever it’s worth, thanks for the castle.” - Inquisitor, Tresspasser
“For whatever it’s worth, you used it well.” - Solas (high approval/romance), Tresspasser
*screams from a tortured solavellan in the distance*
Also, can we please talk about the difference between his “Inquisitor!” vs “Mythal…” when they both show up at the end of veilguard? He addresses high approval inky with surprise and respect, turns his head away so they can’t see his bloody and blackened face. But it’s just the WAY he says their title, like he’s disappointed the only person in the world he might still look up to.
But his “Mythal…” sounds dreadful, almost like he’s going to be sick. He curls in on himself, eyes lowered, dagger raised for her to take like a beaten dog. It was devastating to watch someone we’ve always seen carry themselves so high be brought so low. But suddenly…it made sense as to why he never seemed to relax in inquisition, why his shoulders were always pinned back and his chin held high. It was humility that came first, then pride.
The humiliation of reducing his spiritual nature to a physical form, the humiliation of finding all his long sought wisdom being ignored, of a pure intent being corrupted, of all his painstaking effort being for naught….the humility of knowing he was once foolish and soft enough to let himself be used for an agenda that was not his own. To know that you once loved someone more than they loved you…and that when you gave them all, they gave you nothing.
“Or maybe…I’m the prideful one; imagining his broken heart so I never have to face my folly.” -romanced Lavellan.
Here we have Lav seeing right through Solas without even trying to because they are one of the same reflection. But there are two key differences that stand out to me, the first being that Lav is willing to table her pride to face this pitiful truth about herself head on…while Solas is still too ashamed to, even after all his long centuries.
The second is Lavellan is wrong; she was not imagining Solas’ broken heart over what he did to her, while Solas was imagining Mythal’s (or at least inflating it beyond truth) not only over how she treated him, but the rest of her people. “You saw the understanding Solas cultivated like a tree twisting to reach the sun.” Mythal always knew he did not see her for what she truly was. He never would have joined her if he had. Because both Lav and Solas know what it is to stare at themselves in the mirror and doubt, while Mythal and all the rest of the Evanuris did not.
“Their arrogance is half their binding,” Solas will write about the Evanuris in regard to the prison. “She was the best of them,” and yet, “They were arrogant and fickle.” She never stopped being one of them. She never wanted to. They turned on her…not the other way around, as it should have been.
“Solas always believed Mythal would join us eventually, that she was better than the rest of the Evanuris” - Felessan (a still doubtful former slave/supplicant of Mythal, and rightfully so as she NEVER joined…not even in veilguard, never wholeheartedly.)
I don’t really have any point to make here with this, just musing at the contrast between Solas’ leader/advisor dynamic with the Inquisitor vs Mythal…and how much better one was to him than the other despite not having lifetimes of history together.
A blazing light was brought to that refuge’s beacon eventually…just not from the source he’d been expecting.
so i was thinking about how solas can be a pretty introspective character, in that he's aware of his flaws and open about them in Trespasser and Veilguard. however, he never seems that conflicted about using other people to further his own goals. even people he likes, or respects, or loves. even people he agrees with. we know this wasn't the norm for ancient elves, either, because we get to see felassan grow more and more uncomfortable with this side of solas during the war.
and then i realized like... of course he believes you can love someone and use and manipulate them.
because if that's not true, then what about him?
if you're not supposed to use the people you love, that would mean mythal never loved him 🫠
Honey, he gave himself away in AUJ when he was talking to Balin–”there are still a few warriors amongst us’ and that sweet smile. That was marshmallow city…
possibly my favorite trope in the hobbit fics is the dwarves underestimating a hobbit’s appetite and either fretting that they’ve been starving bilbo or worried that he has some kind of eating disorder
Bilbo: *stuffing his face as only hobbits can and oblivious*
Thorin: *acting majestic but having internal panic attack* have we not been feeding him enough?
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