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fenharels-chewtoy · 3 days ago

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I guess what I want deep down as a Solas appreciator is just to be able to feel like I’m not somehow disallowed from interacting with the rest of the fandom without the identity of my favorite character being seen as an excuse to be shitty to me.

I’d like it of the idea of Solas receiving compassion from and eventually reconciling with his friends from DAI wasn’t somehow unthinkably evil of me to propose.

The idea of a character losing their way, spending time with the dark side, and then finding the light again through the power of love and empathy isn’t exactly new, so I’m not sure why it’s somehow unfathomable for Solas to be one of those characters.

Life sucks, and people look for comfort in their media. For me, comfort is seeing a character so clearly going through a psychological crisis being given the support and love they need to step back from the brink and start to heal. There’s nothing more cynical and life-negating to me than the idea that a person who stumbles deserves to be shamed and punished indefinitely. Conversely, there’s is nothing that makes me sympathize less with the ‘good guys’ than watching them stand on their illusory high ground and sneer down at the one who’s suffering with not a shred of self awareness or empathy for a person they once called their friend.

So every time I see a post gleefully going on about how people want to see Dorian bitch out an already depressed man (who is depressed because of the world Dorian’s ancestors created and from which he still directly benefits) all I see is an incredibly privleged man punching down.

When I see people holding up every other DA character as a paragon of goodness despite how egregiously untrue that is, it makes it harder for me to appreciate any of the things I did enjoy anout those characters, because now all I can think about is the raging hypocrisy in how they’re treated with a double standard by the fans. Why is it they are allowed to be deep and complex characters with both good and bad qualities, but Solas is somehow a one-note asshat who deserves to be humiliated and punished until the end of time?

And I already know that someone is going to come into my notes and start spewing on and on about how my position is somehow akin to genocide apologia. Because I guess in this fandom if you want to win an argument without trying you just throw out a big scary word like genocide, thereby seizing some non-existent moral high ground. It’s not just intellectually lazy, it’s pretty ghoulish to hijack a world describing IRL atrocities to win arguments that have no relation to the actual subject being argued.

I’d just like it if enjoying complex characters and morally grey challenges didn’t give people license to act like aggressive gatekeepers towards me. It would be nice if we could have actual polite and academic discussions about media instead of engaging in tribalism and vitriol.

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fenharels-chewtoy · 3 days ago

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Solas and his relationships

Below is something I wanted to talk about for a while and practiced writing out over and over: Solas’s relationships and motivations. A lot of other bloggers and youtubers have said it better than me, but I wanted to share my thoughts using Weekes’s intentions. It doesn’t touch upon my perspective of the Lavellan romance completely - it is just a broad picture of Sola’s relationships. I want to talk about a Lavellan in a romanced state, in another post. Really, it is just me sorting my own feelings out - sorry for the rambling.. (Note: I do reference a romanced Lavellan here a lot but even a friend inquisitor is just as important). (Also sorry for any bad grammar or mistakes. It has been a long time since I have written anything like this.)

Motivations for Solas are complex and can be viewed through many different lenses. I love the more empathetic angle, but I understand that isn’t for everyone, nor does it excuse his very morally grey acts. I am a Solavellan and proud - and I love what Weekes wrote in response to fans' questions about Solas’s relationships And these really aligned Solas’s motivations for me.

Question: Could you please tell us, if it is possible, why it was only Mythal's words that allowed Solas to stop this train of endless regrets from rolling into the abyss? I'm sorry, but it seemed too easy to me after so many centuries. Perhaps I don't understand the core of their relationship. Weekes answer: That's what he needed to hear. Not because he loved Mythal more, but because she was the reason everything went wrong. She, the past, tells him to let go of all the mistakes of the past. And then the Inquisitor he wanted to be with is there to show him a better future. Question:Does Solas love Lavellan as much as he loves Mythal? Weekes answer:Mythal is his past, where he made terrible mistakes. A romanced Lavellan is a bright future he doesn't think he deserves until he fixes all of those past mistakes.

Solas' crisis is within himself but he puts it on others to try and make sense of it - aka Mythal. The crisis? ‘I have done bad things which hurt others I care about. I am a monster. I need to atone for my wrongs. Or else who even am I?’.

How does that affect his relationships in inquisition? Solas does not feel worthy of love or peace until he tries to amend the past mistakes with Mythal.

What are those mistakes? It starts with taking a body which led to war and eventually the Blight’s creation - he thinks it is his mistake because he knew the risks but agreed to take a body and to make the dagger. He trusted Mythal and said yes to things even though he didn’t agree. When she and the others ascend to Godhood, the crisis about his identity and him feeling monstrous for his actions begin to grow. And he thinks he failed Mythal again! Because this time, he didn’t convince her to stand down or he didn’t stay with her and continue to follow her lead. But it was going against his values too much - no matter how much it hurt him.

I think the rebellion was to free the people, but also to try and show Mythal that his side was the right one this time. But of course we know that she never came, or at least died before she could finally see his side.

When Mythal leaves to help fix the blight problem with the rest of the Gods, that locks in for Solas that she went to fix ‘his mistake’ and died for it. That guilt ate at him and he shut himself from any connection - to fix his mistakes on his own. (because asking for help or getting other people involved he cares about ends in their death, in his eyes. But also on a darker note, he thinks his way is the right way because all of the mistakes could have been stopped if listened to his judgement and not let love and trust color his mind. He is now more prideful than ever).

But she made terrible mistakes too.

He made the dagger but she did ask and knew that he trusted her (her choice was that she used his wisdom to win the titan war). He told her about the others breaking the wards to the blight, but she also declined his offer for her to stay with him and chose to stop them even if on her own. In that moment, he wanted to her to join him in stopping the Gods in his rebellion and then find peace, but she wanted to keep going for what she thinks is right - working within the system and protecting her people from the egos of the others. Neither were right or wrong, but it shows that in the end, they had different expectations/wants for one another.

He loved her. But he felt he never earned her forgiveness - never made it ‘right’ as Taash mentions. And she never chose to stand beside him, fully in a way he wanted.

For Solas, the emotional truth here is that he failed her—and in his mind, the blight, the rise of the Gods, her death, and the creation of the Veil were all consequences of that failure. He became a man obsessed with righting that ancient wrong, so much that it defined his entire mission of tearing down the Veil.

The one thing I am so interested in is that even though we as the audience can see that both have made mistakes, Solas only really sees himself as the ‘mistake maker’. Going with what was intended and my own thoughts, I think this makes sense. If you look at it from his perspective, if he was to admit that she used him or made her own terrible choices/mistakes it would mean that his trust was misplaced and/or that their relationship had changed (from when they were spirits) which means all the pain he feels was for nothing. In the past, he had a version of her that he was upholding, especially in his rebellion. In his mind, she embodies the greater good, and trusting her and making her out as the ‘good one’ means all the pain he has caused to others and himself meant/means something. It was for the people and her vision, he would tell himself.

Solas’s duty, the sunk cost fallacy and Mythal's words

Even though Mythal has an emotional hold on Solas, he still makes connections in the present world of Thedas. He makes friends and/or falls in love despite his past and despite his ongoing unresolved issues with Mythal. It is not a replacement for his past, but something new, something that shows him there is a future. He starts to see the world as worth something as it is. But that is also terrifying.

“Mythal is his past, where he made terrible mistakes. A romanced Lavellan is a bright future he doesn't think he deserves until he fixes all of those past mistakes.”

Lavellan/ inquisitor or friends of the inquisition show him a version of himself that could be happy. In terms of purely solavellan, they are a new separate love for him. Something far away from his past that begins to sing to him. Yes, they have been entangled because of another one of his mistakes, but they catch him off guard because of the way they handle themselves, their wisdom and how treat him.

But because it is not a replacement for the unfinished past, it also means it cannot cover up his past pain/mistakes, nor change it. He still needs to address it/fix it in his mind. And like I said before, the way he thinks he needs to address it is by righting that ancient wrong - tearing down that bloody veil.

He is caught in a sunk cost fallacy. I want to reference Ghil Dirthalen’s video on regret because what she mentions about sunk cost fallacy, regret, and Solas’s ties to Mythal ring true to me. (Sunk cost fallacy mention at 48:40)

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In short, he has put some much into the past and with all the mistakes stacking on top of each other, he thinks tearing down the veil will make those sins not be for nothing. And those mistakes are all tied to Mythal and the world she was building from the very beginning. The one he still believed in, even when she went with the others to become Gods.

That is why her words at the end are needed. Only she, who was there from the start and who made the same mistakes, can tell him that he no longer needs to carry that vision - and break that fallacy.

As Weekes puts in regards to why her words are important during the ending:

“She, the past, tells him to let go of all the mistakes of the past.”

Solas doesn’t love Mythal more than Lavellan or a friend inquisitor, but he does carry more pain tied to Mythal. His actions are driven not by present love that he wishes to rekindle, but by regret and a desperate need to undo a mistake he made as her friend and close spirit companion (or in whatever relationship context you chose).

And in terms of his relationships with them both, it is not about him choosing one over another. When he talks about how he cannot stop for his Vhenan/inquisitor because he failed his oldest friend, the narrative was not saying that the they did not matter, it is saying that he is has sunk so deep into his past and that vision of ‘Mythal’s world’ that even the future cannot pull him free. How can he deserve a future when he is still feeling like a monster? How can he love someone when love destroyed the world before - when he became a weapon? I am only worthy of love once I atone.

His mission to tear down the Veil wasn’t about love—it was about atonement. And until he was confronted with both Mythal and Lavellan/ friend inquisitor, he couldn’t separate his guilt from his duty.

And narrative wise, this is why the ending works for both a friend or lover inquisitor! Because in that moment, both the inquisitor and Mythal are acting as the past and future representations (Rooks is the present. Sorry for the lack of Rook love, I have thoughts about their relationship with Solas too. I love them and the many dynamics people have with them (Solrooks are having a fun time!)). It is not about loving one more than the other, it is about reconciling with the past, letting go of the pain, guilt, regret and being inspired by the future to find a better way. He needed to be released so he could choose his own path without worrying/channeling the wants/needs of others. He is no longer a weapon or rebel.

The personal part with Lavellan (or other solas loving inkys) comes in after when they can ask to join him. The very fact that he doesn’t decline them once they have made their choice, shows how the last moments have opened him up. He can now be who he wanted to be when he was with Lavellan. He can now be that humble apostate but not as a fake persona, as himself. He can become the real humble apostate hobo, with nothing to hide. And I think that is beautiful.

(One can argue that there was another personal moment when he first sees the inquisitor. But then his guard goes back up after that conversation. Mythal then comes into the fray and then the inquisitor follows again, with the goal to guide him into the future. If that makes any sense…I am rambling now)

His romance route is not an easy one and it isn’t clean. You have to hold steady through-out Veilguard and believe in what Solas has said/written to you (‘I will never forget you’, ‘what I feel for you will never change’ etc) and fight through the doubt and pain (especially in regards to killing Varric) to reach the end. It makes it feel earned. It is mythic and lives outside of modern romance, as many other brilliant bloggers have said before.

But this is in my world of Thedas and how I see it.

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