#Solaris

[termitesisagrandslam]

Favorite Sci-fi Set Designs -> Solaris (1972)

[yeboiicj]

PHASE 1

[lascitasdelashoras]

Andrei Tarkovsky - Solaris (1972)

[emthimofnight]

Prince Isol practice!! I always gotta do a bunch of doodles of a character once I design them. 😛 Ended up making it a palette practice, too!

[turturros]

Solaris (1972) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

[humanoidhistory]

Polish poster for Solaris, 1972. Artwork by Andrzej Bertrandt.

[silverequation]

the Solaris Project was supposed to create the flame of hope that would change the world, rectify past mistakes and avoid bitter fates

after beating Solaris Silver became the symbol of hope that moves through time to rectify mistakes and disasters and avoid bitter fates. Silver is the real flame of hope

[worgengel]

whenever we show pity, we empty our souls

[cosmonautroger]

Andrei Tarkovsky, Солярис, Solaris, 1972

[scipunk]

Love, Death & Robots - S3E3 - The Very Pulse of the Machine (2022)

[calliope-does-things]

Destined Fate

I didn’t realize until I finished it but this was actually somewhat inspired by this

[krafterwrites]

Solaris And Eagles

Recently I've been thinking about how all the eagle imagery in 06 relates to Solaris, because I've found it to be deeper than I first thought. It's a reasonable assumption that all of the eagle stuff is simply a representation of Solaris' final form, since the crest of Soleanna does resemble it

However, if more obscure details are taken into account, it could be theorized that it's actually the other way around; Solaris' final form is based on the crest. Let's start by talking about something from 06 that involves actual eagles: these statues. These eagle statues only show up during End Of The World, and touching them resets the unraveling of reality, temporarily closing the eyes of Solaris. These statues, despite seemingly being based on Solaris due to his depiction as an eagle, directly work against him

This leads me to believe that eagles are a symbol of good, and the reason Solaris is commonly depicted as one despite his evil is due to the misinterpretation of him by Soleanna's people. This dialogue seems to imply that Solaris begun being worshipped after saving the town from a massive fire, but since we know that Solaris is a fire god with malevolent tendencies, it can also be interpreted that he started the fire that he saved the city from. This would mean that both the fire (the force of evil) and the eagle (the force of good) were him, but the people only recognized him as the latter. This is why he's always depicted as an eagle. At least, he always is in modern Soleanna

In Dusty Desert, Solaris is not depicted as an eagle. He is instead consistently depicted as a Griffon, a being with the head of an eagle but the body of a different animal. This is accurate to Solaris' first form, which has an eagle shaped head but otherwise does not resemble the bird. However, it also fits as an analogy for Solaris and his involvement in the aforementioned legend. Like a Griffon, Solaris has the head of an animal that symbolizes good, but he is not actually one

So, how does this all return to the original thesis? After all, even though Solaris isn't actually an eagle, his final form does still resemble the one seen on the crest and in stained glass from Kingdom Valley. However, there is one important part missing: the eagle's head

The darker grey parts of Solaris are light shells, which seem to not truly be a part of Solaris' body like the lighter parts are, since they're capable of being broken off. The "head" that Solaris has in his first phase, the only part of him that looks like an eagle, is one of these light shells. The first phase ends with it being broken, causing him to no longer have any resemblance to the way that he's depicted by the people who worship him. As a response he shifts his entire body to resemble this depiction, but without the head, its still an imperfect imitation

If you read all the way through this, thank you! I had a really good time writing this. Also shoutout to @sonic-the-hedgehog-2006, I probably wouldn't have realized all of this if I hadn't seen that one post talking about the Dusty Desert ruins

[jadedazemations]

WAS GONNA DRAW AN INTERACTION BASED OFF THIS AMY AND MEPHILES POST BUT I THINK I GOT POSSESSED OR SOME SHIT-

Most the page:

Their name’s Neo Solaris btw 👉👈

[emthimofnight]

Mephiles' reborn into his newest incarnation, Prince Isol. He is trying to pose as royalty in an attempt to slip under the radar and reclaim Iblis, his other half, to return to his true glory as the sun god Solaris. He's a wolf, since Apollo/Helios (god of the sun) in Greek/Roman mythology is associated with wolves, roosters, horses, and cattle. :P Isol has little memory of the events of 06, nor his identity as Mephiles.

[sonic-the-hedgehog-2006]

Just a heads up; I rewrote portions of this post to have a kinder voice and better get across the point I was going for, since the original post was a bit hostile. Apologies! I'm autistic and have trouble managing tone, especially over the internet. If you wanna reblog this post please reblog this version!

A lot of people recently have been posting about how Solaris as a deity is a sympathetic figure, and how he was a victim in the grand narrative of Sonic ‘06.

I really like this reading, but I'm also a fan of more gray and ambivalent readings. I’m gonna try to demonstrate how moral ambiguity is a theme that ‘06’s story definitely and intentionally explores, and note some important details about Solaris presented within the main game of '06 and its paratext:

To best illustrate what I’m getting at, I want to talk about Solaris chronologically. To do that, we need to discuss some deep lore that has come up on my blog several times in the past. (And no, it’s not the fact that the owner of the shops in Soleanna is named Enrique.)

Most people know that Solaris is represented by an eagle in Soleanna’s religion, but for those who missed the symbolism, Soleanna’s crest depicts an eagle standing proud with wings outstretched underneath a simplistic depiction of the sun, with the prominent feathers protruding outward in a manner reminiscent of sunbeams. Considering Solaris is known as Soleanna’s sun god and the eagle here is clearly represented as being a proxy for the sun (with the wing-sunbeams and all), and based on the fact Solaris’ physical form heavily resembles an eagle, it’s safe to say the eagle became a symbol in Soleanna due to worship of Solaris.

Additionally, the stained glass murals found in Kingdom Valley seem to show the eagle—Solaris—having some connection to or dominion over the day cycle, with the mural depicting this in a serene, positive light.

With that connection in mind, I would like to bring up the most insanely loaded and impactful throwaway NPC dialogue of any Sonic game:

Now, I’ve posted about this dialogue plenty before, but I wish to reiterate how this completely missable dialogue from some random woman in Soleanna’s New City contains deep lore that is heavily implied to be the origins of Soleanna’s symbol of their god, and may even be an origin story for Solaris’ worship in general.

The story is about Soleanna being overtaken by huge flames, until out of nowhere a huge eagle saves it. We know that Solaris’ physical form has the appearance of an eagle, so it’s barely conjectured to say that this story represents Solaris saving Soleanna—otherwise it would literally just be a narrative red herring. Additionally, the NPC specifically says that some people still believe the story to be factual, so this is clearly meant to be some manner of biblical non-fiction in the Solaris religion.

Clearly, this event sparked worship of Solaris, which, as previously mentioned, was viewed by the people of Soleanna as a positive deity—the “Eternal Sun,” which was paid homage to via the Festival of the Sun, which involved (description from the game’s official guide but this is also just what’s shown in the intro cutscene) “lighting a beautiful fountain of fire, bathing the city in the crackling glow of a thousand flames,” which I would say is representative of the great fires that overtook the ancient Soleanna, then afterwards “fireworks fill the sky, and there is much rejoicing by the general populace.” I would consider this as representing Solaris appearing from the call of the flames, but that’s conjecture—all that we need to focus on is what’s textually stated, which is that fact that there’s “much rejoicing by the general populace.” This is mirrored by the dialogue heard in-game, in which Elise, whilst lighting the fountain, prays: “Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light.”

The next event that we know of chronologically is, after somehow taking the form of a meager sentient flame, Solaris was entrusted to the royal family as the “Flame of Hope.” We don’t know how this happened, just that it did.

Later down the royal family lineage, we get to Elise’s father, the Duke of Soleanna. At some point, his wife—Elise’s mother—died, and conveniently the Duke then became infatuated with the altruistic idea of harnessing the power of time to allow his people to rectify past mistakes and avoid bitter fate. To that end, he started the Solaris Project, which aimed to study the Flame of Hope the royal family had been entrusted with and, more bluntly, manipulate the super-dimensional god-being Solaris for its power.

It is noted that the Living Flame had to grow larger for this power to be harnessed.

It is explicitly stated in-game that Solaris disagreed with this treatment. During the cutscene “The accident 10 years ago” which shows the Solaris Project experiment failing, a scientist notes that out of nowhere an electromagnetic pulse has been generated, which is causing a meltdown. The Duke responds to this by saying, “Why, Solaris? Why do you refuse to listen to my voice?” which suggests that Solaris itself generated the EMP, despite the fact that this causes it to fracture.

Furthermore, the game’s official guide (which should admittedly be taken with a few thousand grains of salt, as it’s a Prima Games guide and those are rather notorious) has this to say regarding Solaris and the experiment:

So, pretty cut and dry when you view it all like that in isolation, right? Solaris was a benevolent god that was abused by the duchy of its people and driven berserk from said abuse, which is why even after reforming its darkness and wrath it still sought to destroy all time.

Obviously no hate to people who prefer viewing Solaris in a strictly sympathetic light (I literally wrote a fanfic with that as a partial premise), but you have to admit that it muddies the narrative. And, additionally, what a lot of people ignore when they come to that conclusion is the fact that Solaris has shown malevolence.

First of all, consider the fact that the Flames of Disaster were a known thing in Soleanna’s faith—specifically known as Solaris’ wrath.

And when you remember the fact that Solaris takes the form of fire, and is known to be the being whose wrath is released in the form of flames,

Suddenly the story of the eagle has an alternative reading!

I am SO firmly in the camp that that NPC’s one-off dialogue is meant to suggest that Solaris manipulated its way into a position of worship, and that it being reduced to a meager flame was a saving act—which is why said flame was then entrusted to the royal family.

As stated above, this isn’t even an unheard of concept: Elise just casually tells Sonic about the potential of the Flames of Disaster, and all of Eggman’s actions throughout this game hinge on the fact that he wants to take the power of said flames (which he already knows about, just not how to channel) for himself.

Not to mention the fact that the component parts of Solaris don’t do the sun deity any favors. Iblis is literally a destructive manifestation of blind wrath, and Mephiles is a misery maximalist who literally overcomplicates plans to a fault just so the absolute most amount of karmic irony and sheer misfortune can underline all of his actions.

So… Solaris was vastly malevolent, ergo the Duke’s actions were completely justified, and Sonic ‘06’s narrative is about defeating ontological evil?

Also probably not!

A major theme of Sonic ‘06 is the dichotomy between the actions of an individual and the impact those actions have on the whole of society/the future—impact those actions hold in general:

Elise’s decision to sacrifice her relationship with Sonic by unmaking the instigating event of their meeting from the timeline, all to save the future, that’s just the underlining of this theme. There’s also the fact that Elise had to bear the Flames within her and repress her emotions in order to lead her people and hold back Solaris’ wrath, and the fact that Silver grapples with the idea that to save his future he has to personally kill an individual. Shadow has that whole moment where he says if the world chooses to become his enemy he’ll still fight like he always has, and even Amy gets the (admittedly pretty funny) line where if she had to choose between the world and Sonic, she’d choose Sonic—and for what it’s worth, that arguable ideology did plant the seeds of Silver questioning whether what he was doing was right or wrong. Even Blaze, who’s notoriously underutilized in ‘06, sacrifices herself to seal away the flames of Iblis for good.

I feel like the intended reading you’re supposed to have is that, yes, Solaris did terrible things, but the Duke of Soleanna and contributors to the Solaris Project were also terrible and attempting to harness powers no mortals should possess, and both sides acted in manners that impacted the wider world in direct and indirect ways. It’s supposed to be a little difficult to work your head around and completely justify in one direction or the other—it’s trolly-problem-esque, in that sense.

So, in conclusion… all of this being said, there is still room to be made and interesting narratives to be constructed around the idea that Solaris was a victim—and personally I agree there’s some sympathy to be felt for the Flame and the experimentation it underwent even with its malevolence—but I feel like the actual narrative presented is much more intentionally nuanced.