#Solas and Inky

[kaija-rayne-author]

Dragon Age Veilguard 7th review in series

Obligatory I'm not an asshole disclaimer. You can skip to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

52 hours in, 50 hours playtime

Part 6.1 is here.

Massive spoilers for Veilguard

Another long one. And it's largely negative.

So. What to say. Well, the first should be I called it on Illario being the crow traitor. At least, at this point in the game. (He just broke Zara's neck to keep her from telling Lucanis his name. Presumably.) They could throw a plot twist in there and have Illario be innocent but acting squirrely to bring out the actual traitor. That would be interesting. But to be completely honest, I don't think the writers are that skilled. The plot of 'jealous younger cousin/family member seizing power and betraying everything to do it' is a classic trope.

It's also as stale as the package of crackers I keep meaning to throw away. They really went with that? I think my eyes are in danger of rolling out of my head. And digging them out from under the dresser is just so awkward and uncomfortable. Have you ever washed eyeballs? They’re squishy.

Can we mention plot holes? I took Emmerich with me for the crow mission. Why exactly didn't he do his 'corpse whispering' to get confirmation that Illario was/was not the traitor? Even if you didn't take Emmerich, they could've easily taken the corpse to him, but nooooo. That would've made sense! Especially because there's then a scene of Emmerich whispering a corpse about the hand of glory. They sooooo needed to take all that back to the drawing board and tighten it up a lot.

But I've said before that they need better editors. Honestly, even though I don't particularly want to work for Bioware given their history of firing useful, skilled people... maybe they do need me. Or someone else as exacting as me and good at editing. Cause much as I hate to critique another editor? Whoever edited this isn't very good. Whoever edited DAI wasn’t very good either. I'm a far better editor. It's a niche, nit picky sort of field. You have to care about the details and you have to dedicate yourself to it. It's a field where you need to constantly be learning. Things like, say, how locks work. You can have advanced English degrees, you can be a phenomenal writer, and still suck at editing. Because it's so very specialized if you want it done right. Whoever their editor is shouldn't be editing games professionally. There's obviously too much to keep in mind to tie everything together. (Honestly, autistic and auDHD people like me make phenomenal editors if we enjoy words/stories and get into it.)

I have no personal grudge against their editor/s. It's just my professional opinion that they need an editor with more skill.

Also, whoever drew that hand of glory probably should've looked up what one looks like. They went for an Addam's family vibe and that's just... not a hand of glory. I'm a witch and a student of witchcraft history. I should know.

So, a hand of glory is an actual thing.

This is how one was made.

"It must be cut from the hanged body of a criminal (usually a murderer) on the gibbet (usually a roadside gibbet); dried in nitre, pickled in the urine of man, woman, dog, horse and mare; smoked with herbs and hay for a month or dried under the sun during the dog-days; hung on an oak tree for three nights running, then laid at a crossroads, then hung on a church door for one night while the maker keeps watch in the porch.

The candle part had to be rendered from the fat of the same criminal you got the hand from. It’s usually the left hand, but could also be the hand that murdered. Images from the period when people believed in them vary on how the candle part worked but one of the more common is the whole hand dipped in the tallow rendered from the criminal until it was stiff like a candle. Then the tips of the fingers would be lit."

They did get what they were supposed to do correct, though.

Good idea? Yes. Bad follow through.

The name is bastardized from the French word for mandrake.

As usual, better editors needed.

Did the Weisshaupt quest. I'm not sure if that's the end of act 1 or half way. I'm leaning on end of act 1 given the way the plot is shaping up. It was a fun enough sequence. If a bit loud. I also like it when the heroes fail in stories. Because that's realistic. We fail. We pick ourselves up, and we keep trying.

I've said it before, and I can't claim authorship, I'm not even sure who used it first, but 'hope gets kicked to the floor, beaten the shit out of and still spits out blood, maybe a tooth, picks themselves up and says, 'bring it, bitch".' Hope isn't gentle. Hope is ready to throw down.

Can I just say that Zimmer was a fucking mistake on the music front? He's been phoning it in for ten years and he absolutely did for DAV. It's a shame when the soundtrack for DAI was so stirring and just... fucking epic. DAO's too, for that matter. (The OST for DAI also helped tie the world together.)

It's like someone decided to toss the collections aspect (which was a large part of the fun for me and many others, including collecting enough stuff to make fun armour) without even remotely understanding what those collections did for the story. Big mistake in my professional opinion. In any story, you need little things that tie all the big things together. DAV doesn't have the small threads tying the big bundles of yarn together. It's just... not good.

There are parts of the game I do legitimately like, but they're far outweighed by the sheer dumbassery.

I am still so utterly flabbergasted that they nerfed rogues so much. Why in the world would you take a good half of what makes playing a rogue fun and just toss it? Why even bother to have a rogue class at all? They’re just a light skirmisher in DAV.

They Legolased my elven rogue and I'm not happy about it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Legolas, and he's an elven warrior, good with his bow and dual weild, and that's basically it? (He’s a lot more in the books, but I'm thinking movie Legolas. He’s not even a rogue in the books.)

As a rogue in DAV, there's no traps to set/disarm, you can't pick locks, you can't sneak or hide in shadows, it's just ridiculous to even call them rogues. Oh, but you can hit the locks! Someone has been watching too much hollyweird. Hitting it hard works, right? Of Course the lock just breaks.

Y'Know? I'm not a locksmith, but I know a decent amount about picking locks and how they work because I'm an author and like to know how stuff works. Hitting a lock? Makes it less likely to actually open. I really really wish whoever made that decision many hours of disappointing game play in a class they love. Because that's what they gave me and other rogue lovers in DAV. It just fucking sucks. Are the rest of the classes this bad? I don't think I have the stomach to play this again as my second favourite class to find out (mage).

I think I figured out what DAV is missing/what's bothering me the most.

A lot of things are more streamlined, better designed, I do have to give them that. But they took it waaaay too far. They've streamlined it to the point of boring mediocrity.

There's very little to collect other than codex entries. Which are fine, barring the massive number of editorial issues in them. Even if they really aren't answering any of the burning Lore questions I've wanted answered since I started playing these games.

But there's nothing else to subtly tie the world and story together. I've mentioned it before, but the mounts you could collect in DAI were gifts from different peoples and cultures. That tied the world together and to Skyhold.

Same goes for the Warden memories, and all the other little collection bits. It made an intricate, beautiful tapestry of DAI. DAV is a poorly woven bedsheet. With plot holes you can stick an arm through.

DAI had issues, every game does. Some of those issues I'm glad to see fixed in DAV. And overall, they took a lot of the fun out of a Dragon Age video game with the over zealous streamlining of DAV.

And I'm not sure if I'll ever get over the 'rogue who isn't a rogue at all' issue.

I played around with the decor part, and honestly, why did they even bother? You could completely customize Skyhold to how you wanted it. That was great fun for me. In DAV? You can put mementos on shelves and change the central statue, that I've found so far.

The Lighthouse is pretty cool, but it floats unconnected from the world, and it really shows. There's just... nothing tying everything together. Not to mention the complete retcon of, 'oh, living beings can't go into the fade unless they're mages, and even then it's dangerous to the point of suicide.'

Yes, the Inquisitor went into the fade in DAI. It was either that or splatter on the ground, and they barely survived it. And you had to leave a companion behind as the price of getting out. In DAV they live in the fade (without consequences that are clearly spelled out in the Lore). People are strolling into and out of the fade like it's a shopping mall. Y'know, the fade that's supposedly chock full of blight? According to the actual game I'm playing?

It's like the different departments and different writers never once talked to each other. And man, does it show.

I think the only section where they must've communicated well is, again, backgrounds, scenery, and environments. That is literally the only thing holding this game together and making it feel even remotely like Dragon Age.

And that's just sad. They had so much material to work with from the Lore and the previous games... so much, and as far as I can see? They've ignored most of it.

And I know a video game can't do everything, but my elf has Dirthaman's vallaslin. Dirthamen is the twin soul of Falon'Din. There's a puzzle in Arlathan that is a bunch of owls, and my Rook dopily says, 'guess someone liked owls'. Oh, you mean the brother Evanuris whose mark you wear on your damned face? Really? Really really? JFC. So, yeah, they're probably not going to do shit about figuring out anything to do with the Vallaslin. Which in both my personal and professional opinion would've been a very interesting thing to write about. What happens in a culture when they find out they've been wearing slave markings. Do they all get rid of them? Do they have interesting discussions and quests about figuring out the meaning of old and new? Of old things that might’ve been bad at one time, but have a completely different meaning now?

I dunno. This game just isn't great so far.

Goddess. I hate writing negative reviews of Dragon Age stuff. I utterly love the previous games, the world, the Lore.

Y'know, the Lore they've decided isn't important and brushed under the rug? Talk about disappointing. I was so hoping for some answers to all the burning questions I've had for years about the Lore.

And I'm dreading the end of Solas and Inky. I don't think it's going to be remotely what my Romance loving heart will think is even close to a happy ending.

Weekes tweeted at me that 'there's a suggestion of a happy ending' for Solas and Inky. And that gave me some hope, because Tresspasser left a few things dangling in good star-crossed lovers fashion. But unless Inky and Solas end up, 1. Alive. 2. Together. 3. At peace or close enough to it... it's not a happy ending. I'm afraid Weekes, who isn't a Romance writer (I am) has a very different definition for 'happy ending' than me, most Sollavellans, and Romance readers in general.

A HEA (Happy Ever After) or a HEfN (Happy Enough for Now) is a staple of Romance.

Something can't be considered Romance as a genre unless it has two things. 1. Focus on the romance/relationship of the characters. 2. An HEA/HEfN. In each book/story/piece of media, not even the end of the series, in every installment, Otherwise, you can't even market it as Romance without violating stores terms of service and risking having your account taken down for misrepresentation of what you're selling.

I swear to Gods if we get some Romeo and Juliet sort of ending for Solas and Inky, I'm boycotting Bioware for life.

Romeo and Juliet is not a fucking Romance. It's a fucking tragedy. If we get a tragic ending in any fashion, for Solas and Inky? I'm just absolutely done with Dragon Age. Them being together with a chance at happiness is all I want. (Honestly, I desperately want the intimate scene we were denied in DAI too, and I don't think that's too much to ask for either.) One intimate scene and a HEA. Let them retire someplace out of the way so Solas can grow flowers and play music and paint. Inky can do stuff she loves, and they love each other. The parameters of how exactly they do that don’t matter. They could do literally anything as long as they're alive, together, and with the same chance of happiness any Romantic couple/group has.

That is the only type of ending that won't have me boycotting Bioware for life. Especially after the lackluster showing of DAV.

I saw the title of one news article (on steam, I'm trying to stay as blind to this game as possible to provide a fair review that are just my thoughts). And it said something along the lines of 'The best fantasy game released this year.'

My immediate thoughts were, 1. Had whoever written that actually played this travesty? 2. How much was the writer paid to say that, and 3... what? Is DAV the ONLY fantasy game release this year? Cause that's the only way it's the best.

8th in series here.

[venusmage]

Herald of a god after all

[pinacoladamatata]

still love the DAI intro bc if you ask the two lads fighting demons if they're with the chantry the guy who is like the basis for the stories of the maker and creator of the veil fucking laughs at you

[katsitsiyo]

Here’s a Solavellan piece I comm’d from the amazing @hejee. (Tysm!!!)

Solas and my inky Karhará:se spending quality time reading next to each other. ☺️☺️

[ephemeralinstance]

The concept of Solas 'accidentally' leaving the eluvian open before his ritual because part of him wants to be stopped is a bit silly but at least very funny because can you imagine his disappointment if he's hoping the Inquisitor will show up and then instead it's Rook ...

The whole time in the regret prison he's just in there incredibly bored thinking to himself if this were the Inquisitor instead I would at least have to put some effort in to manipulate them

[mythalism]

genuinely curious how the writers and larger dragon age audience would treat thom rainier if instead of being appropriately* repentant and putting himself in prison he blew up a major orlesian government building to instigate a chevalier rebellion or tried to have someone do some necromantic blood magic ritual involving uncertain danger and possible sacrifices to bring the innocent children he ordered killed back to life

[burningblake]

Cassandra when she disapproves: I don't disapprove, you were exactly what we needed when we needed it, how are you so decisive, I admire you

Solas when he disapproves: *loud sigh* thank you for proving your lesser status post-veil creature

[veilishvixen]

“So young and vibrant. You do the people proud and have come far.”

Every single one of Mythal’s fragments would have cherished Lavellan and you can’t convince me otherwise.

While it really is a shame we didn’t get to learn more about what Morrigan and Inky got up to together in the past ten years…how much do we think Morrigan actually disclosed to her about Mythal?

They’re definitely not strangers when we find them together again. “It was she who suggested we meet, and as always, heeding her counsel proved to be the wisest decision.” “Morrigan has eyes everywhere.” And Morrigan will stress several times to Rook that the Inquisitor has not been, nor will she ever be idle in their fight against tyranny (completely unprovoked, mind u) These two are at the hip nearly every time we encounter them together in DATV.

Their respect for one another goes far deeper now than it ever did in Inquisition and one might even argue that it has evolved to fondness…though they still challenge each other unapologetically, “Speaking from the heart, Inquisitor?” Harsh as fuck, but absolutely necessary given the circumstances. Lavellan doesn’t get weepy or angry, just withdraws to continue contemplating in silence. Her wisdom has only grown over the years and just as she reminded Solas of himself, I’m sure that through Mythal’s memories, Morrigan is reminded of him as well. He’d been “Beloved of Mythal” and there’s little doubt in my mind that Lavellan would have been too, perhaps even more so as both Mythal and Elgar’nan consider all the elven children to be their’s.

E: “The people need strength”

M: “AND wisdom”

Inky’s two core traits as expressed by Solas and Alix Wilton Regan (one of Inky’s VAs). “You do the people proud” so not only was she strength and wisdom, but also the pride of her people.

“For all the dalish got wrong, they did one thing right; they made you.” Solas was the first to speak it aloud, but he was not the only one to feel such sentiment toward her.

[void-bitten-ghost]

I have this scene in my head and I can't sleep

Back to the final confrontation with Elgar'nan. Lavellan is there, she's an external part of the fight keeping every other thing off their backs. Or maybe she decides to help with the archdemon? After all, that is her self sacrificing idiot getting himself chewed on like a fresh bone in a happy maw.

Something happens, she's caught in the crossfire of something and gets really badly hurt. All you can hear over the sickly bone crack and her scream is the barest, broken whisper of "vhenan" that somehow echoes through the battlefield, right to Elgar'nan.

That gets his attention.

"Vhenan?" He scoffs. All disbelief and mocking cruelty as he turns away from Rook, a nuisance, and scans for it. The wolf. Trying to discern as to where his attention--

There. The barely elvhen thing pinned down and still fighting with a near torn off limb. He sees her, and he looks to Solas first to make sure he knows that he sees her as well. And then Elgar'nan moves.

Solas runs. He runs like he's never run before, in and out and inbetween his wolf form, tumbling over falling pieces of blight and debris, tearing through it like leather under sharp, motivated teeth.

And he is motivated. He breathed the word and now there is nothing keeping her safe. The guard of that kept secret shattered because of his stupid, lovesick--

Elgar'nan is there just as Solas is there to see it. How he breaks her prosthetic under-foot, how she swings her weapon and is parried, pinned back by a mass of blight. The only other being Solas has lingering fear of, and it has it's heel on the only creature that has ever made him feel anything positive in the waking world since his creation.

He is livid. He is seething. And he is terrified.

Yeah anyway Elgar'nan gets a face full of *insert weapon of choice here* when he gets distracted by another verbal joust with a scrambling Solas and he is equal parts proud and terrified when his Vhenan manages to make Elgar'nan bleed

[lavellaned]

making a rook that looks exactly like the inquisitor

[merrillage]

I think something that bothers me a lot with veilguard is how little your inquisitor and solas' actual relationship matters, it feels like the game assumes they were friends even if your inquisitor vows to stop solas during trespasser. An inquisitor who hated solas, who solas hated in return, and then vowed to stop solas shouldn't be able to be convinced by rook into being open to the idea of talking with solas. An inquisitor who while they hated solas but for some reason vowed to redeem him shouldn't be able to actually do that, solas wouldn't care to listen to them. An inquisitor who romance solas then was angry at him after he ended things with them and then in trespasser vowed to stop him shouldn't be open to talking with solas either, or if they could be convince it should be more difficult to do so. An inquisitor who had a good relationship with solas but in the end vowed to stop him should be able to be convince into talking with him and be there at the end to talk with solas. An inquisitor who romance solas and was heartbroken when he ended things, who goes onto vowing to stop solas should also be able to be convinced to talk to solas. They could make it a similar situation to when you talk to mythal, you have to say the right things to convince them the person they once knew was actually real and not just a trick. An inquisitor who either romanced him or had a good relationship with him and vowed to redeem him should actively push for Rook to try and see past the dread wolf and see solas, they should be angry at Rook if they choose to either fight or trick solas in the end, if they don't try and redeem him.

And like yeah i understand this would of been harder to do, probably?, but it would of been worth it. It would have been worth it to include what your relationship with solas actually is when your created your inquisitor because the inquisitor, and mythal, are both necessary if you want to get the ending where solas willing binds himself to the fade.

[flightofthedragon]

The worst thing you can do for Veilguard is play Trespasser right before it.

[lngellvar]

You think you've gone too far to come back, but you're wrong.

[katsitsiyo]

I comm’d this piece from the amazing @refrainee!! (Thank you sm again!! 💗)

A compilation of some quiet intimate moments between Solas and my Inky Karhará:se. 🥰

[smitten-miqitten]

Been thinking about how "I suspect you have questions." is actually really fucking funny when the person he's talking to is called the Inquisitor.

Solas is many things, and one of those things is hilarious.

[ar-ghilas-vir-banal]

I just can’t see Solas ever having any thought about being a parent in all this thousands of years. He hates his body. He hates the way the society he’s part of is degrading. I just don’t think he even considered “be a father” ever. Nah.

Until he meets Lavellan. (At least mine.) She’s caring and motherly with Sera, who at best Solas tolerates. And when Cole arrives, she is so immediately concerned with accepting and helping him, protecting him as staunchly as she can.

Even Morrigan’s strange son, she immediately warms to. When he says “I didn’t expect you to be an elf,” Ar’Sulahn grins and quips “Did the ears give me away?”

It makes Solas chuckle, listening out from his little perch on the wall. Cole is someone he feels responsible for, protective of. And he knows this must be how fatherhood might be, though a child of one’s own body… with someone one loves…

And that first little thought of “I wonder what her children would look like.” And it burns a hole in that man’s mind. Would they look like her? Or… or him? Would they marry or just live together? Oh marry, for sure. She deserves the ceremony. The beauty. His vows… and then a home. A simple little home in a forest. Where the trees are quiet and no one will disturb them. Where their child could play and climb trees and… green eyes, he hopes. Like their mother. With unerring kindness and courage and a heart to protect. Maybe more than one. Maybe…

These are the quiet, foolish dreams he nurses alone in the Lighthouse. The ones so bright and precious that he can’t even fully grieve them. Solas just holds them like tiny jewels. Deep in his heart.

He can’t know Ar’Sulahn Lavellan wonders the same. That she dreams a little girl with lilac eyes and an all too serious demeanor, who wants to paint and loves stories from her father. Because he has the best stories.

Until much, much later when they’ve talked and cried and Solas’ wounds have begun to heal. The Blight is healed and the world outside the Fade is allowed to do the same. And it’s just them now. Safe and together. And there’s time, and time, and time in the world of dreams.