Viago: Teia and I are having a baby.
Rook: That's gre-
Viago, slamming adoption papers on the table: It's you, sign here
checks out
Monterey Bay Aquarium
will byers stan first human second
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
NASA

Kiana Khansmith
Keni
YOU ARE THE REASON
cherry valley forever
Stranger Things

pixel skylines
Claire Keane

oozey mess

⁂
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
hello vonnie
Cosimo Galluzzi
Xuebing Du
occasionally subtle
Cosmic Funnies

Kaledo Art
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Bangladesh

seen from Kazakhstan
seen from Romania

seen from Iraq

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from Russia
@sidebenefits
Viago: Teia and I are having a baby.
Rook: That's gre-
Viago, slamming adoption papers on the table: It's you, sign here
checks out
Genuinely obsessed with the fact that Viago wrote crow Rook a letter after the Antaam incident and literally just addressed them as idiot. I love their dynamic so much
choked on my own spit reading this banter
Heard a convo between Emmrich and Harding about teaching Dorian in the Necropolis 😩 Said he had ‘tremendous potential, but appallingly flippant towards the dead!’
The Dread Wolf Take You (Part 1)
~~Link to the complete 31 page comic here~~
"Imagine that, overlooking the god in your mids!"
May I present, my attempt at illustrating the last four pages of Tevinter Nights. 😁 (Also, the first time I'm posting art on here!)
As the whole thing was quite literally too long to post on tumblr, I uploaded the full version on a customized site made for reading webcomics (via ComicFury). Feel free to check out the link above if you like to read the rest! Also, if you're on mobile, there's a "Scroll View" option for easier navigation. :)
And, obviously, HUGE spoilers for those who haven't read Tevinter Nights!!
On a personal note though, I can't believe I actually finished it... As it had been a *very* long time since I drew (and finished) anything, let alone a 31 page comic and reading Tevinter Nights again finally sparked my motivation (and the courage to post it lol). So I want to thank Patrick Weekes for helping me overcome this massive art block and over two decades of Case Closed mangas for inspiring me how to draw an overly dramatic "exposing the imposter" moment. 😂 I tried my best to be as faithful to the book as possible and it took me forever, so... hope you like it! :D
Hot blooded and cocky
New painting!
Lighthouse banter between Enmrich and Davrin (paraphrasing just cuz my memory is bad)
Davrin: So let me get this right, Manfred's a wisp?
Enmrich: A spirit of curiosity, to be precise.
Davrin: So he came and animated a body just to... Serve you tea?
Enmrich: Manfred loves boiling the water, he's memorized by the steam.
Love & Wisdom
Solavellan hell isn’t hell if they’re together.
Solas when meets Lavellan who doesn't want to drag him into an elven game of thrones by manipulating his affection, doesn't demand of him to be a war criminal or commit a genocide but actually invested in their relationship and simply want to truly know his personality, thoughts and beliefs: oh. that is a healthy relationship. got it.
Kala Elizabeth shared a cameo of Solas’s voice actor reading the letter to the inquisitor ❤️
I've seen it said that Rook is a better romance option for Solas because unlike Lavellan, they know who he is from the get go. So let me make something clear:
Rook does not know Solas better than Lavellan does. They know his history, his crimes, even his regrets, but what he shows when they talk to him is very much a mask.
Fen'harel is not who Solas is. As dishonest as he was about his past during his time with the Inquisition, he also came the closest to being himself ever since he took a body.
In sappy terms, he hid his deeds and plans from Lavellan, but not his heart. With Rook, it's the opposite.
Who we see in Veilguard is not some kind of "Solas unmasked", it's Solas who has returned to wearing the mask he was allowed to shed for a little while and hide the fact he'd ever worn it.
The raggedy apostate who plays mental chess with Bull, trolls Sera, beats Blackwall at diamondback, who nerds out about magic with Dorian and approves of helping every single hinterlands peasant you encounter, that's the real Solas. Keeping his past a secret is what allowed him to stop being what his service to Mythal and his people made him into, even if for just a little while.
It always seemed to me that the first night after the finale of "Trespasser" Lavellan and Solas would cry. Everyone has their own reasons, but... it's sad 😭
They are truly peak pining and patient tenacity. This art is gorgeous
Made another rook
I don't wanna sit here and act like I'm a professional or anything, because I'm not, but as someone who has had to do a lot of work to overcome trauma and reconfigure my brain more or less from the ground up, there's a lot I have to say about Solas's mental state
We know that Solas was essentially used and abused by Mythal for millennia. Even if he wasn't under a geas, he was twisted from his purpose by being made to fight, and then created the Wolf's Fang which was used to make the Titans tranquil and started the Blights. He made those choices himself, but it's important to understand that no choice is ever made in a vacuum. She took advantage of his vulnerability when he was given a body after however long as a spirit semi-existing peacefully in the Fade, and moulded him into a weapon.
He is broken, because Mythal broke him. I'm not incapable of seeing why she did what she did because like I said, no one makes choices in a vacuum and I could write about her for a long time too (in a similar way to how I have had to do myself in my own life in understanding why others abused me). He was so traumatised by everything that happened and he was trauma bonded to Mythal pretty much from the minute he gained a body. Trauma bonds are not about love. He definitely interpreted it that way, as most people do, but that's the weapon abusers use to keep the victim under their control. Abuse abuse abuse show a scrap of love and then abuse some more. If I just take it, I'll get the love/attention I need. I will earn it, because love is suffering, and I have to suffer to earn getting my basic needs met from my family/friends. Mythal, as his creator, was the one who he would've attached to in a similar way to spirit Cole/human Cole.
Trauma bonds are pathological. Mythal made him believe that if he did as she asked, and kept supporting her, then eventually he would gain her favour and they would be able to free all the elves, and he'd be able to live according to his true nature, which is one where he doesn't have to fight. (Remember his personal quest in DAI? He actually kills the rebel mages for corrupting his friend--another Wisdom spirit--into Pride.) In reality, she was just using him. She always kept the bone just out of reach for her lapdog. The line from Rook where they say (paraphrasing here) 'you know, I was actually excited about getting your approval... That's how you do it, isn't it? Keeping giving little scraps of approval to keep someone loyal, and then you turn around and betray them' is so telling too.
Where--or from whom--do you think he learned to do this?
It literally reeks of a pathological trauma bond and honestly, with how isolated, 'grim and fatalistic' Solas is, it is not a surprise that he's so broken.
Solas, essentially, is little more than a lap-dog to Mythal. He followed her like a lost puppy, because especially in his early days, that's kind of what he was. You have to remember that most of the insight we get about Mythal is from Solas's perspective, and he is not a reliable person when it comes to her after so long being repeatedly terrorised and twisted and manipulated. There are several instances where he describes being betrayed by her, and mentions some of the things she did, but he never quite holds her fully accountable and ends up directing his rage elsewhere. (The parallel between Mythal/Solas and the rebel mages/Wisdom is important here.)
This awesome post by @mythalism only reinforces this. He is so messed up in that scene, he is broken, he is holding the Wolf's Fang up, trying to give it to her because it symbolises the burden he has carried for thousands of years trying to avenge her death. He never wanted the Fang, like he never wanted a body. Mythal just stands over him, fully aware of what she did to him, and only getting him to stop because Rook petitioned her successfully, and the reunion with the more benevolent Mythal within Morrigan tempered her anger. She was a goddess, with the unequal power dynamic, right to the end.
As a side note, on the potential romance element between Mythal and Solas, I read an excellent breakdown of it on Reddit a while ago about how out of character it would've been for Solas to keep something like that from a romanced Lavellan, especially in Trespasser when he comes clean about his plan/past. I can't find it now because it was pre-Veilguard release, but it made a lot of sense to me. Solas and Lavellan never have a love scene in DAI because Solas didn't want to 'lay with them under false pretences'. Lying about who you are when sleeping with someone is nonconsensual. You can't consent to sleeping with someone if you don't know their true identity, and someone who knowingly lies about who they are to get into your pants is a sexual predator. For someone who led a slave rebellion (no doubt many of them being sex slaves), and a former spirit of Wisdom, Solas would've been well aware of this. In the unsent letter from Solas to Lavellan he says he came so close to breaking and desperately wanted to stay with them as Solas, with the implication being that that is where he planned to sleep with them once he'd come clean. But because he stops, because he's still unable to forgive himself or release himself from his trauma bond with Mythal, he breaks away, and they never have sex.
Bottom line: Solas would've been honest about it. Especially that. As the Inquisitor says, he can't lie about his heart.
And it's why the Solas/Lavellan romance is so powerful because quote, 'you change everything'. Solas thought he knew what love was, that love was loyalty, devotion, worship, etc. It's not just his plans or worldview that Lavellan changes. Lavellan sees him for who he is, without the mantle of Dread Wolf, and because of that he's able to express his true nature to her, even if he's not being totally honest in Inquisition. Lavellan got much closer to the real him than most, as he says, and changed his understanding of love completely. Unfortunately, he has unfinished business, an unresolved trauma bond, and his crushing sense of duty to the past is what keeps him from taking that final step towards letting go of it entirely. Trick also says Solas doesn't think he deserves love, which tbh is kind of a hallmark trait of people who have survived abuse.
And honestly? Call me a simp but I think he really was trying to get the Inquisitor to stop him. He saw himself being unable to let go because he was so broken and burdened by his guilt, and knew he couldn't save himself--was too proud to admit that he couldn't, because how pathetic does it make him look? And how could he stop now without rendering all the damage he'd wrought pointless? Yet here was someone who had changed him right down to his core, who understood him in a way few people ever had, whom he trusted, whom he loved in a way he hadn't loved anyone else before. It took him 'centuries' to build up rapport with the members of his rebellion. The man doesn't not know how to form attachments without trauma, and suddenly he forms a strong one with someone who loves him completely and without condition. It's a jarring change.
Lavellan says that maybe they're being prideful themselves, refusing to see their own folly. But I think in admitting that they might be wrong, that it might be wishful thinking borne from misguided love to a truly terrible person, they've rendered the point moot. It shows self-awareness, which isn't folly.
If anyone can make Solas understand true love, it's Lavellan. Lavellan loved him when he was being his true self. Lavellan loved him after his betrayal was revealed. Lavellan loved him when his guilty conscience and terrible actions almost destroyed the world. Lavellan loved him because they knew the real him, and knew that his heart and spirit were broken, and knew that their love would endure, that their love would heal him.
And that's exactly where they end up. Healing the past, soothing the Blight, and loving one another completely.
I don’t think Solas and Lavellan are trapped in the Fade prison, actually. During the final battle Solas tells Rook that the prison is built of regrets and that he had to mold them into someone the prison would accept in his place in order to escape. Rook gets out because they overcome their regrets with the companions’ help, especially those they feel they wronged. A redeemed Solas is likely not without regrets by the end of Veilguard, but they’re certainly alleviated. And a romanced Solas with Lavellan beside him? They go together, by choice. I don’t think the prison will hold them.
And what would that mean for the veil? They said they'd need a god trapped in there to keep the veil up but it sounds like it might not be an instant process because rook was in there for a bit and the veil didn't fall. Maybe that's because Elgarnan still lived? Kinda sounds like Lavellan could leave and be fine but I'm not sure the process to getting back in. Solas may be able to leave for a short time but I'm less confident about it.
I have finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard and decided to share some of my opinions. I kept this as vague as possible to avoid spoilers.
The Good
- I feel like my choices matter, especially in the final mission. The background I chose (crows) felt relevant and came up fairly often.
- So many big lore reveals which I'm so into.
- I played as a rogue and the combat feels much more interactive than previous games.
- The game felt urgent and the enemies felt like a real threat unlike Corypheus in Inquisition.
- It managed to surprise me. While not all the twists were a shock, there were a few (notably one towards the end of the game) that I never saw coming.
- The character creator felt inclusive and detailed.
- The locations are beautiful, especially Antiva.
- The Solavellan romance was well-represented but didn't take center stage. (Tbh wouldn't have minded it center stage but that wouldn't be fair to non-solavellans.)
- There were some little details I appreciated like the glowing lights that show who wants to talk to you and how the quest markers would take you from location to location making it easier to find your destination.
The Bad
- The dialogue can be super cringe, particularly Harding's. I liked her in Inquisition but it was so hard to listen to her talk at times in this game.
- Unsurprisingly, they forgot a lot of their own lore. Won't go in depth cause I don't want to accidentally spoil anything.
- Everyone is unambiguously a good person. I'm a big fan of moral grey areas so I was a little disappointed that all the characters seemed to want the best for everyone. And I never became super attached to any of the companions. I also felt like enemies were always evil for evil's sake.
- The game feels heavily influenced by scifi aesthetics which feels out of place to me.
- I felt like I had very little control over the personality of my Rook. She always seemed more like a purple Hawke no matter what choices I made.
- Choices in past games pretty much have no impact.
- Can't change the colors of armor. Can make armor look like other armor but everything seemed too flamboyant and colorful which isn't my style so I struggled to find stuff I liked. Although to be fair I did not unlock every armor.
The third wolf statuette in DAV is wild.
I’m realizing now that Solas’ motivation on not wanting Cole to become a human was selfishly motivated because one of his biggest regrets was gaining a physical form.