Solas is as he always was. Changing based on those around him. In inquisition, if the Inquisitor dislikes him and treats him like a hobo apostate (condescendingly) then Solas responds in kind. He becomes more entrenched in his belief that the people of this time are lesser than, incapable of the compassion and empathy that ancient elves who came from those spirits are. If you treat him with respect and kindness, not only does he treat the Inquisitor the same way, he starts to doubt himself and his beliefs. It was said in Veilguard, he can't help his nature. He longs to reflect, as Wisdom would demand. The wisdom to recognize when you're wrong and adjust accordingly.
If you play veilguard as a Rook that only treats Solas as a villian and with distrust, if you choose the fight ending specifically, you push him all the way to the 'dark side' so to speak. You pervert him all the way from his truest nature until he utters the statement, "I am a god". A statement he should find abhorrent, that goes against his entire life's work. Especially sad considering everyone he'd ever loved and trusted forced him to abandon his nature. However, if you give him a chance, he reflects. He goes back to his true nature of wisdom over pride. Going as far as to sacrifice himself for everyone else, humility rather than prideful arrogance.
Your words and beliefs have an impact on others. Your kindness and respect does, too.
to be clear, I believe younger artists and minors can write good fics (not to say “fanfic must always be good” either because it is a hobby and I still believe that as long as it’s done with love and the artist’s joy, it is good) and I believe it’s good when younger artists and minors start making art at young ages.
that said, a lot of fanfics out there that you read and love are done by adults with kids, jobs and responsibilities. adults who have years, decades of practice under their belts. adults who don’t let life and responsibilities take away their joy in creating.
someone’s love and passion don’t suddenly go away the second they reach a certain age. so if anything, I feel sorry for people who say “adults shouldn’t write fanfics or make fan art” because what these people really say is that they expect themselves to stop having fun and finding comfort in things that bring them joy and comfort the second they reach a certain age. it’s sad that they put an expiration date on their own fun and source of comfort.
if you ever doubt that your ao3 comments matter or mean something: i have been struggling with my writing for 6 months straight, crying myself to sleep afraid that i will never be able to write again, that the thing i love most in the world has left me, that my writing is just gone
this morning i got this comment:
and after i stopped blubbering over it, i picked up my writing notebook, and re-read all my fic research, and opened up my document again for the first time in weeks without being afraid of it
you have no idea how much writers treasure every single comment we get. you have no idea how big an impact you can have. sometimes, just sometimes, your one "insignificant" comment changes everything
I'm in my feels today apparently. Because I just keep thinking about how Solas' personhood was taken from him in many ways. How lonely he must have been, for millennia upon millennia. Never truly being able to trust anyone.
How it's in a world that he created(or destroyed in his mind) that he finally finds someone he wants to open up to, confide in, someone who sees him as Solas, as a person, maybe truly for the first time. Someone he trusts but ultimately doesn't want to hurt, someone who he doesn't want to see him at his worst because they finally saw him. They cared for the man he kept hidden away for who knows how long, how he probably only wanted them to remember him as Solas and not Fen'Harel.
Vhen'Harel has loved Dragon Age for over a decade, with Inquisition holding a special place in her heart. A lore nerd at heart, she enjoys writing, creating DA gifs and screenshots as mediums for storytelling. She's also a devout Solavellan.
Reading Asunder and Masked Empire for the first time and realising Leliana knew about the Tranquility cure and was the messenger that pushed Celene to burn Halamshiral has me shook. I do not see a path forward with my Fen Lavellan that doesn't end with her utterly losing it with everyone.
What if you were a DALISH ELF MAGE and all of your FRIENDS wanted to UPHOLD all of the OPPRESSIVE INSTITUTIONS that make YOUR life HELL?
What if some of them were directly responsible for the brutal murder of your people? how do u not crash out. If my girl wasn't pro-Dread Wolf before she certainly was after DAI. Fen'Harel'enaste tear it all down.
Cullen: Nahari initially regards Cullen with a very healthy amount of caution. After Haven, she grows to really respect his dedication and his skills. She sees him in battle, and she sees how he cares for the troops and innocents. Once she becomes inquisitor, she can see that he shows her a great deal of respect and fairness. Once he opens up about his past and lyrium withdrawal, they spend more time together. She appreciates that he's put so much trust in her, and they quickly become good friends.
Josephine: Nahari never got any bad vibes from Josie. She was nothing but kind from the start. And while Josie's past and skill sets made it hard for Nahari to relate to her at first, a friendship with Josie was worth pursuing. She often finds herself aligning with Josephine during war meetings, as a middle ground between the sometimes extreme suggestions of Cullen and Leliana.
Leliana: While Nahari has a great deal of respect for Leliana, she never got very close with her. She respects Leliana's desire for change, and views her as the best option for divine moving forward. Nahari wants freedom for her people. She could honestly care less about the Shem's religion, although she respects her human friend's choice in religion. She also understands that with Leliana's skills and job, she is capable of more than she let's on. Leliana has secrets. Perhaps dark ones. And Leliana is unwilling to get close to anyone. And Nahari doesn't gravitate towards friendship because of it. Also, her faith is challenging for Nahari. Leliana is so passionate about it, and Nahari just isn't.
Morrigan: Nahari was surprised that the moment she met Morrigan, she didn't instantly distrust and avoid her. In fact, quite the opposite. She appreciated Morrigan's snark, and appreciated her calm. There was a wisdom that Morrigan held that Nahari gravitated to. She was so different from most humans, and Nahari loved her different perspective on roles and magic. Although, she did get annoyed with Morrigan whenever the human would condescendingly talk about her superior knowledge of elven history. This annoyance completely vanishes during DAV. They become even closer after trespasser, and work very closely together.
Companions
Cole: Nahari doesn't mistrust spirits like other people tend to. She hears wisdom in Solas' commentary, that spirits are complicated, much like people. She knew since Haven that Solas is friends with spirits. She herself has spoken to them in the fade om occassion. And Cole so clearly wants to help. When she learns he is a spirit of Compassion, that's all there is to it. He is the embodiment of a quality she holds in the highest regard. They often find themselves in the garden late at night talking. Sometimes he tries to help ease her burdens. But Nahari tries to reciprocate as often as she can. She trusts Cole, tells him her secrets and feelings, and he never judges her. He told her his secrets as well, and she saved Rheese and Evangeline. They remain close through the years following trespasser.
Cassandra: For a brief moment, when Nahari is imprisoned and questioned by Cassandra, she does not like her. Immediately after, even on the way to the first rift, this shifts into respect. Watching Cassandra grapple with the morality and weight of her world views and beliefs tells Nahari that Cassandra doesn't make decisions lightly, and that she doesn't follow blindly. Cassandra's strength is another source of inspiration for Nahari, and she grows to value the human's insights and advice. Once they are at Skyhold, they become best friends. They spar together, sit at the camp fire together, and draw strength from one a other. They are life long friends.
Dorian: Oh Dorian. That sending crystal is getting used every week for the rest of their lives. Nahari didn't have the time to distrust Dorian as she might have. They clung to each other in the future-Redcliffe. They clung to each other for nights afterward. They remained close ever since. She sees Dorian's blindspots, especially when it comes to elves and slavery in Tevinter. But she sees him trying to do better, to understand, to change things. And she knows how brave he is for that. How brave he is for being true to himself while still caring for his family and home land.
Sera: Sera was a tough one. Nahari is very understanding and compassionate, but she has little patience for willful ignorance. Sure, she appreciates Sera's robin hood tendencies. Nahari always did love a good under dog, a good rebellion. But Sera's digging into her beliefs on magic and elves keeps her distant from Nahari. Nahari loves her people and culture. She loves history, amd truth-seeking. She loves self-reflection and she loves magic. All of this puts her at odds with Sera. However, Nahari is good at winning people over, and she also tends to meet people half way, and that's what she does with Sera. They share cookies and roof tops during inquisition, and loose contact with one another through the years.
Vivienne: Nahari distrusts Vivienne from the start. A circle supporter and Nobility all in one. Vivienne doesn't like her either, so there's that. They will never see eye to eye. Nahari thinks that most likely, somewhere deep down Vivienne is afraid, and is the root cause of her support of circles and her condescending attitude. But Nahari can't bring herself to care. She stays far away from the Shems who would shackle her in a circle.
Blackwall: Nahari doesn't quite know what to make of Blackwall. He seems like he means well, and after a time, he expresses his loyalty plainly to her, and his approval, which she appreciates. But they just never seem to get closer than mutual respect. She sees how he amd Sera become fast friends, and it surprises her at first. He always seems stoic and at arms length. No matter, she reslects his abilities and convictions. And she respects him even after he reveals the truth of himself. She believes in second chances. She believes in the ability to do better, and she sees that in him.
Varric: Truthfully, Nahari wants to become bestie with Varric before he does. She respects and trusts him from the start, and ots so easy to be friends with Varric. It takes some time, but by the end of Inquisition, they are life long friends. Varric is a good man, plain and simple. He is loyal and trustworthy. He is funny, and smart. And she absolutely loves his talent for writing and story telling, and even more so his talent for charming other people. He sees the best in people, just like she does. He believes in second chances. He inspires her. Amd she wishes she would have told him that after the events in Veilguard.
The Iron Bull: She respects Bull's abilities and his straight forwardness. But even more so, she appreciates just how down to earth he is. He takes the time to share things with her, to give her advice in a respectful way. Somehow, despite being a huge Qunari, he diffuses situations easily. And they kill dragons together. And drink together. She's doubly excited whenever Bull is with Dorian when they talk via sending stone.
Solas Solas: Here we go. She loves this man, let me tell you. When they first meet, she can't help but try to stick close to the only other elf there. She was just shackled and questioned by Shems, and there he was, a sight for sore eyes, tending to the mark on her hand. He was serious, and intelligent beyond anything she'd ever known before. And despite being a self described loner, he was self assured and graceful around others. When he spoke, he spoke in a rhythm that enchanted her, and when he spoke of things he cared for, there was a fire in his spirit that gripped her. There was no friendship between their mutual respect and their love. His love was like everything else he cared for... a fire blazing with intensity and purpose. She knew he was hiding something. He never revealed anything about his past. In the time between Inquisition and Trespasser, she had started to speculate deep down about whether truly was, but she never admitted it to herself. It was why, during tespasser, she came to the realization of him being Fen'Harel so quickly. Deep down, she knew. 10 years might seem like a long time to wait, but not for a love like that. Not for the flame that once burned against her like a bonfire. Her soul could never recover. I could go on and on here, but moral of the story: Nahari always has, and will always love Solas.
When a character doesn’t realize they’ve been, like, shot or whatever and they hand brushes against their side and comes away wet with blood, and they’re just staring at it like wtf is this and then their knees just totally give out on them and they sink down, maybe gasping a little as the reality finally hits them. That’s good stuff.
I see that, and raise you a character who knows they’ve been shot, but waits until the rest of their crew is out of sight to put their hand against the slowly spreading stain of blood on their shirt, then trying to steady their breathing so they can follow without letting on how injured they are.
Okay but like the character who doesn’t realize they’ve been hurt trying to see if everyone else is okay only to slowly realize that everyone is looking at them with mounting horror. Then they touch their side to find it’s wet and oh no
Then there’s the half hilarious, half heartbreaking subversion where the character gets stabbed, and then whines and complains about how they’ve ‘been mortally wounded, there’s no hope for them,’ in order to annoy people enough that they’re distracted from how serious the wound actually is.
One thing I love about Solas is that he is, in fact, a terrible liar. He's excellent at telling the truth (with the very important caveat of the truth as he sees it) in a remarkably misleading manner.
However, telling the truth and being honest are not the same thing. He is being deceptive, though I would argue not lying. I also tend to split the hairs very finely here and would call him being deceptive rather than lying. I don't really even think they are lies of omission, but I tend to think that people are not entitled to know a great deal of information about anything, and thus tend to feel lies of omission are a bit nonsense. Ask better questions. My Lavellan was also her clan's spy, so she tends to have a flexible approach to the subject, and thus is more unbothered about it than Solas, who I do think is fundamentally honest, but constrained by circumstance to be deceptive by duty.
He did nothing. Technically true, for a very limited definition of true. He allowed Corypheus to locate his orb, Corypheus did it (also, it was a good plan, no one else was doing anything about it, and no one was going to pay attention to one lone elven apostate).
He saw it in the Fade. Technically the Fade was everywhere, before the Veil, and then he lay in dark and dreaming sleep while countless wars and ages passed.
Mythal was the best of them (true. a bit damned by faint praise, though.)
The one time where he actually lies, it's super easy to clock, because he trips all over himself. I have distracted you from your duty. It shall never happen again. (projecting much? he does this with Rook, too, when he drops them into Fade Jail. I don't even think he was talking to Rook so much as himself. He was totally starting to lose it at this point, I think.)
He kinda doesn't even lie after Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts (though he does get really flustered because that question was entirely unexpected and he didn't have an opportunity to come up with a glib answer and he is Not Happy about that). "Oh. Well, never… directly, of course. An elven apostate is rarely invited to speak with empresses and kings." And then I saw it in the Fade. (True. Also true if you limit the response to the Orlesian court. Probably less true if you extend that to include Arlathan, although he could hardly have been called an elven apostate then, so still true. But answering for simply Orlais is completely valid.)
Or he evades the question entirely. With the orb. What is it, and how do you know about it? He never answers that question. He answers the first half (accurately, if not fully), and just ignores the second half.
And Veilguard. This is not an invitation to bash Veilguard, to be perfectly clear, because I adored the careful threading and very precise use of wording that they did throughout here. It was so terribly Solas, in my opinion, and I was giggling every time he did his thing.
"I abhor the use of blood magic." Correct. Rook is specifically referring to "blood magic" in the modern Thedosian sense of doing some messed up mind control stuff. The context of the conversation matters here. Solas even says, would have if I could have. Also true. It is not until after this, that Solas realizes what Rook is thinking about Varric. Varric is... very practiced at shading the truth himself. Totally changed what he was going to say there and came up with that particular little plan on the fly.
This is also, by the way, consistent to how he acts in Inquisition. When he's talking with the Herald about blood magic, as a theoretical source of power, it's simply a thing that can be done. There is, after all, consensual blood magic, or blood magic powered by the self. (And I suspect he used some of the residual toxic waste of blood magic residue in Arlathan to power the ritual, but I digress) But when he speaks with Cole about blood magic, he's indignant. Of course he would not bind Cole! To take away someone's agency would be wrong!
He does do some really shady nonsense about telling Rook to tell Varric he is sorry. The whole manipulating Rook's mind to prevent them from realizing about Varric was the sketchiest. Also something I could definitely see him doing, in this particular very dire set of straits. He can be ruthless, expedient, but he is not cruel, and he is being both ruthless and expedient with Rook here.
The bit that really got me was the "IF joining me and stopping Elgar'nan requires the Veil to stay in place, then I will pay that price unflinching" (in which the if is doing some very heavy lifting and "I swear to you the Veil will not come down by my hand." That was some fairytale monkey's paw wish wording if I ever heard it, and that ring of absolute sincerity that just was like, oh, you are telling the truth so hard, you're up to something. I couldn't even be annoyed at him for it because it was so incredibly obvious, but also everyone was very much backed into a corner there. (I was utterly delighted by it. I suspect my Lavellan was also delighted by it. They did tell Rook, after all.)
His face doesn't even lie well. It has this hard, closed off, brittle quality when he's trying to be deceptive and he's being Fen'harel. He's got a very open face when he's just being Solas. And you can see it shift, in the memories, from something more vulnerable to something harder.
I truly adore Solas' very precise, rules lawyering approach to speech, in which he is fundamentally truthful without being honest, and lets people come to the entirely wrong conclusions. It's delightful. It's a very useful skill. I love that he feels bad about it. My Lavellan wouldn't feel bad about it at all. Solas is a better person than she is and she knows it.
I do think that Clan Lavellan was spot on with 'God of Misfortune', as the most accurate description of Solas, and I liked 'God of Lies', because it's so obviously propaganda that survived, and like... consider the source of that information. Perhaps maybe one shouldn't believe the Evanuris about much at all, which I also really enjoyed about Veilguard, which in my opinion continued the general Dragon Age theme of checking one's sources and the biases and reliability thereof and not trusting the folks in power blindly.
Yessss. To tell lies, you have to remember them! Lies need a constructed scenario, and then you have to keep track of every detail so you don’t get caught. That’s why I love the edge Solas sits on - he’s never quite lying, because he’s remembering things as he’s seen them. Everyone jumps on the blood magic or being caught about missing court intrigue as proof - see, he’s a lying liar who lies! Yeah… but is he? He’s delightful to study. I especially love that Solas needs a romanced Lavellan to know it was never outright lies, but information he omitted - even he needs that difference to be clarified! Ah I love him. It's that line that made be go into VG with ok Solas, what are you omitting here.
When VG first came out, I cackled when Solas said, “depending on the story.” Another line I enjoyed of Solas' is when Rook says something to him about why should Rook believe anything he says being the god of lies, and all Solas says is "Quite right."
I had written awhile back about Solas' use of his voice as a tool and weapon - the Dread Wolf is putting on a full performance which is why I love that VG added the codices about the pantomime theatre mask of Fen'Harel and Felassan's codex about playing up the part. It's the delightful nod of confirming what Solavellans (and other Solas fans) have been saying for years - the Dread Wolf is the performance.
I love having experienced Solas for so long before VG, because nothing really surprised me. I found myself nodding at so much of what he said and did, thinking, yeah… that sounds about right buddy.
And his face. I could go on and on about his face in VG, especially when the masks slip. The way he dissociates when he makes decisions that go against his nature. That whole sequence when he and Rook confront each other after Rook escapes the regret prison - honestly, all I saw was mask after mask, slipping, being forced back into place, him distancing himself from every accusation Rook throws at him.
And Rook escaping the prison? Not a surprise at all, if you watch Solas’ face. I think he knew Rook would find a way out. Rook isn’t an ancient being, and the prison can’t hold them the way it held Solas. If there’s anything Solas learned from the Inquisition, it’s that the mortals of Thedas can move through their emotions much faster than he can.
And there’s that moment when Rook throws Varric in Solas' face and Solas' face just goes so passive, like he's literally trying not to feel the pain of what he did to Varric and all can say in that dialogue is just a simple "yes".
All of this is probably why I love the Inquisitor’s misdirection in VG too and can never let it go.
Oh, where did you get that statuette, Inquisitor?
Oh, around the time of his ritual.
No, Inquisitor - Harding asked where you got it. Why won't you answer her directly?
I also enjoyed the conversation Lavellan has with Rook - it felt like Lavellan really controlling the conversation - being like Solas - revealing just enough but not revealing too much and then switching the topic to Rook's relationships.
And agreed - god of misfortune is such an apt description for Solas.
the idea that women are "more allowed" to express emotions than men under patriarchy honestly seems like a lie that serves patriarchy itself.
women are constantly pressured to dissociate from the way our circumstances negatively impact us, and we are straight up not permitted more emotional expression in any meaningful way that is received well in patriarchal relations. in reality, we are marked as "more emotional" and therefore taken less seriously than men.
nobody under patriarchy is allowed a healthy and full expression of their emotions, but framing emotional expression as an advantage that women have is bizarre.
Women are only allowed to express emotions that fit the role of servitude - love, care, nurturing, admiration, submission, and some concern or sadness when appropriate.
Men are only allowed to express emotions that fit the role of oppressor - lust, assertiveness, domination, anger, rage, violence.
These emotions are divided to sustain a hierarchy that places women below men. Anyone who violates this division - an angry woman, a nurturing man - is punished.
And women who perform only the correct emotions at the correct moment are still punished with the accusation that those emotions make them inferior to men, whose manly feelings are re-imagined as rational drivers of their actions.
By the way: if you understand this, then you should be able to understand that "the patriarchy harms men too" & "men benefit from the patriarchy" can both be true.
A system can both give a privileged demographic increased access to power and money, and at the same time force the members of that demographic into performing the rigid and emotionally stunting role of oppressor. It's not that complicated.
I don't think it's unreasonable for our public officials to be expected to prove they're alive and not in a coma to be able to retain their office.
If someone were, as a random example, say hospitalized for over two weeks with no explanation, I think that should automatically trigger a special election to replace them.
If you're still able to do your job, then prove it. And if you're not, then you're actively obstructing democracy by not stepping down.
Which is to say, that if a public official were to pass away or into a coma, and their handlers choose to obfuscate that fact, this should be seen as intentionally obstructing democracy.
And there should be, you know, consequences for the people who would do such a thing.
We are excited to announce Dragon Age Nostalgia Month, a month-long event meant to celebrate the world of Thedas once again, looking back at Dragon Age tetralogy and all it encapsulates.
