thank you so much for writing this up! Excellent and very interesting (I don't mind VG spoilers at all and am already aware of many of them, but since I haven't played it just know I'm speaking from relative ignorance when discussing his character arc lol.) I really like this:
Solas's attachment to the notion of a "true form/ purpose inherent in all things", including a clearly defined optimal state for the sapient species.
I'd actually been thinking about this wrt the Qunari, but it applies to spirits too, even more so; their existence is defined by their essence, not the other way around-- as is the case for mortals who are free to choose and define themselves by way of their actions. For mortals, existence precedes essence. I think this plays out in the Solas vs Varric debate about Cole. Solas, immortal, once a spirit, believes it's best for Cole to act according to his "predetermined" nature. (and literally become "bound" to it.) Varric, mortal and very much an absurdist, believes Cole should be able to determine his nature through his actions.
While I personally prefer the Varric route, it's probably a matter of opinion which is "best" for Cole, that's not my point-- in fact, an existence free of knowledge of the absurd, full of clarity about his essence and the meaning of his existence, would probably be easier for Cole. Having to live in an absurd, chaotic, senseless world and to make choices within that world with no knowledge of whether these are correct, as human beings do every day-- this is much more difficult and more painful.
It makes sense to me that this is what Solas would want for Cole. It's what he wants for himself and for the world.
Solas being "entrapped by essence" as you say, (or believing he is) is precisely it. Bearing in mind that idk fully how it was handled in VG, I think Solas's arc was intended to be his struggle against his realisation of the absurd. (or at least can easily be read that way, if it wasn't intentional)
...one day the "why" arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.... It awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What follows is the gradual return into the chain or it is the definitive awakening.
Solas literally wakes up, and realises that the world is empty, meaningless, and cruel.
The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus provides three options after this realisation: literal suicide, philosophical suicide (a "leap of faith",) or absurdism-- that is, embracing absurdity, choosing to knowingly exist in an absurd world despite what that entails.
Solas I think can definitely be seen as an absolute negationist and an absolute nihilist; in The Rebel, Camus speaks of "indifference to life" being a mark of absolute nihilism.
Absolute negation is therefore not achieved by suicide. It can be achieved only by absolute destruction, of both oneself and everybody else.
Solas denies the world as it is and, no matter how many lives are lost, wants to recreate the world that existed before his awakening; a world in which things had essential meaning. His response to the absurdity of Thedas is to attempt to destroy it. In other words, to escape. To take a "leap of faith." The world as it currently exists, the people living in it, don't matter to him. From The Rebel:
If one believes in nothing, if nothing makes sense, if we can assert no value whatsoever, everything is permissible and nothing is important.
When you say Solas isn't anchored in the present, that's my point-- he denies the world as it is, and holds onto the belief that he can create a better world. But, ultimately, this is an illusion. Whether or not what I've said here was an intentional writing choice, what certainly is (and has been since at least da2) is the theme of Entropy. In struggling to create a world free of chaos and indifference, Solas is doomed to create chaos and indifference. There is no escape.
they somehow manage to sway him towards a way of thinking where the value of the modern world is not dependent on how far it has strayed from the Balance that was Sundered, therefore -- in introducing him to dwelling in the Present in the first place. Not even hope, not even anticipation of a worthy future.
As Camus says, "the point is to live." And it has nothing to do with hope. According to Camus, there is only one real option when faced with the knowledge of an absurd world, and that's to choose to exist in it anyway. The absurdist position is that life must continue, because without life the absurd ceases to exist, and there is no living without the absurd. "To say that life is absurd, one must be alive." Anticipation of a worthy future isn't the point of living; the point of living is to live. To keep going, no matter what. "There is but one world."
In da2, when Hawke tells Saarebas that "existence is not a choice", Saarebas replies: "It is the only choice.... It is to be." (truly one of my fav scenes in all of dragon age.)
His fate belongs to him... the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. In the universe suddenly restored to its silence, the myriad wondering little voices of the earth rise up. Unconscious, secret calls, invitations from all the faces, they are the necessary reverse and price of victory. There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.
I'm not 100% sure how Solas's arc concludes, or whether it was handled well in VG, but either way-- it doesn't matter so much how it ends, whether Solas ends up embracing the absurd or not. I think the thought was there from the start, and it's still something that can be taken away from him as a character. If he ultimately gets lost in nihilist escapism and can serve as a warning story, or if he learns that living life means accepting the absurd, I think it still ultimately says the same thing. Even if life is senseless, cruel, and difficult... life matters. The point is to live.
