#datv mythal

[bloedewir]

A tragedy we have witnessed

Mythal in DAO/DA2/DAI: a mysterious ancient being. powerful and wise, extremely intriguing, disturbing, charismatic as hell. an enigma.

Mythal in DATV:

[reagan-the-saunders]

"I am not what I once was, but this place is mine and I defend the worthy!"

[nerdsandqueens]

Thinking about Mythal again.

Last year, I started to get interested in the history of "Mother Goddesses" in mythology. In part due to learning about dnd Tiamat and her real life mythological counterpart. How a Mother Creator becomes World Destroyer fascinates me greatly. Especially because it echoes my own journey from over-responsible white knight people pleaser, into someone free from the narratives I've been spoon fed. But it''s led to me feeling deeply betrayed. I poured my heart out to people for years, only to realize they were bleeding me dry.

Imagine out of the kindness of your heart, you gave life and sustenance and love to others. You loved love and life, and so it was no worry to give to those in need. You made the world a better place. You made all feel cherished from your love, and you loved to give that love.

But imagine you did not get love. Or even worse, they hurt you instead. After all you'd done for them. After all the trust you had given them.

In my struggle with people depending on me when I never asked them to be, it feels like I let them nurse from me. Then when I realize they drain me, they feel like parasites. Insects crawling all over me. Invading me. Infecting me.

Imagine if Mother Earth was sentient, and one day felt like every living creature growing out of her skin were crawling parasites. She'd seek to wipe the face of the earth clean. How dare they hurt and infect her.

Flood myths. The sea seen as the birthplace of life, suddenly swallowing up the world it had brought forth.

Benevolence turning into Retribution. Suddenly your very existence is a grand sin to the mother who gave you everything. The life you live. The air you breathe. The world you exist in. What a terrifying reckoning for the muliebrious universe to decide to take her gifts back.

[reagan-the-saunders]

Heights of Athim Evanuris Altar // Mythal Statue

[reagan-the-saunders]

YO???

the gasp i gusped

you know, I may not like you, but holy FUCK woahhh

[nerdsandqueens]

Saw a post claiming that Mythal was emotionally abusing Solas. As someone who experienced emotional abuse, I can tell you with certainty that is not what was going on.

Emotional abuse is about power and control. It tends to involve being with a partner or parent whose interactions with you involve constantly being yelled at, put down, negated, gas lit, and their every interaction with you is mean spirited and cruel. An undercurrent of anger towards you or mockery typifies the abuser. It is markedly aggressive behavior than can escalate to physical violence. The abuser tends not to leave the victim alone.

The effect of this will cause trauma. In particular, emotional abuse is also called verbal or psychological abuse due to the mental ramifications.

Emotional abusers control your world and put you in double binds. The long term abuse will make victims constantly confused and constantly second-guessing. Because they experienced day to day life with someone who attacked every decision they made to ensure they rely on the abuser. You may develop nervous ticks due to how much the intimidation shut down your body into freeze.

Emotional Abusers do not ask anything from you, and they do not "talk" to you. They demand with rage and vitriol.

Mythal is not aggressive, nor does she viciously make demands of Solas, nor does she humiliate him. That dynamic is not present and is not at all intended in the narrative.

What IS present between Mythal and Solas (and ALL of the Evanuris/spirits) is Enmeshment.

Enmeshment is typified by a lack of boundaries, a lack of identity, and a confusion over where someone's emotions end and your own begin. Feeling compelled to act on the behalf of another due to their grief or fear or upset is a form of enmeshment. Do you even know how you felt on the matter before you decided to take up arms for them? Another's emotions are not yours and are not your battles to fight.

It is clear what people are picking up between the two, is this enmeshment. Solas feels overly loyal to Mythal's Retribution, and Mythal constantly feels betrayed by those she considered as family yet has never vet her so called "family". In all renditions of her existence. Both Mythal and Solas are culpable in their dysfunctional relationship due to not respecting their own boundaries. But it is nothing akin to emotional abuse in the slightest.

[nerdsandqueens]

Genuine question about the Solas/Mythal dynamic but I thought enmeshment WAS a form emotional abuse? I know you said it has to do with violence and power dynamics, but wouldn't that still qualify for Solas and Mythal as an abuse of authority?

Enmeshment is not a form of emotional abuse, but a form of emotional neglect. It tends to occur within a family and typically between parent and child. It can also occur between adults in any relationship where people subconsciously assume a parent or child role in their dynamic.

In the case of two adults, the person playing the child role is consciously downplaying their own needs. This is present in Solas' white-knighting behavior towards Mythal, which extends into a Savior Complex upon all the world. Wisdom into Pride. The root of the issue is that Solas respects Mythal more than he respects himself - leading to his dysfunctional allegiance.

The dynamic occurs because of the absence of boundaries. People see the mother/son dynamic between Mythal and Solas, because those are the subconscious roles they are taking on with each other due to enmeshment. Due to a lack of boundaries.

Emotional abuse, on the other hand, involves the active and constant erosion of boundaries and is a component of power and control tactics.

It is marked by invasive aggression from the abuser as a way to maintain mental and physical control over the victim. Every boundary you attempt to set up is reactively and immediately attacked by the abuser. The abuser's anger, aggression, and derision are the biggest red flags for this behavior. None of this does Mythal demonstrate.

Abuse of authority means the enforcing of roles often based on an external metric like male privilege. Or other such hierarchy.

In this case, Solas would have had to have been an elven slave and not a spirit for there to have been a power dynamic for Mythal to abuse. In the Veilguard codex "The Trials of the Gods", Mythal actively eschews this hierarchy of god and slave. Mythal never uses her role as head of the gods or other such title to coerce Solas into yielding to a demand. Solas is a spirit just like her. Solas became physical in order to follow her as a beloved, not because Mythal intimidated him to do so.

Mythal shows no signs of aggression toward Solas, and I believe what people read as aggressive is her over-stretching her motherly nature on to Solas (e.g. "He didnt visit."). Which is enmeshment.