#ive fallen into a solrook pit and i can't get out help

[veilkeeper]

breaking the cycle

alt title: why a sunshine boy beat solas at his own game

i need need need to talk about corentin and solas. like, the rook/solas dynamic is insane, right? it's insane. you meet him knowing he's the dread wolf. despite his protests, he is a god. you know him to be deceitful, cunning, and willing to betray allies and friends alike. if you uncover his memories, you learn that he has always been like that. there is no one he will not stab in the back.

despite that, you can respect him. more astounding, you can earn his respect. you're mirrors of each other, diametrically opposed but united in a common enemy, and you are literally following in his footsteps to stop the gods. you're in his base, uniting armies and earning the loyalty of your companions with his advice. whether you're willing to admit it or not, you are carrying his mantle, at least insofar as he was the leader of a rebellion that opposed gods.

remember, whatever it takes was his refrain first.

for corentin specifically, he never trusted solas. but aside from being morally opposed to his plans, corentin didn't really have... ill intent? all he knew was that while solas had to be stopped, he and varric had once been friends. so when he meets solas, he resolves to never trust him, but maybe to listen. he's done all this before, after all, and corentin isn't going to turn down expert advice when he's this in over his head.

and he does come to like solas. genuinely. he's the most frustrating person in the world, he hates when solas gets a little condescending but the scraps of approval are like a straight injection of endorphins (not unlike how he feels around emmrich, sometimes). the greatest sin anyone can commit around corentin is to be boring, and solas is anything but. he wants to impress him. he wants to believe that even after everything, solas can change. maybe seeing corentin succeed where he hadn't will help him realize that he'd been wrong.

then he betrays corentin. sends him to a prison of regrets for weeks. trapped in a circling, desolate place that was made to hold gods. worse, corentin finds out that not only had solas killed varric, but that he'd intentionally manipulated his mind to prevent him from realizing it.

but even after all that, when corentin finally confronts solas in minrathous, he thinks maybe there's a chance. solas needs him! he can't do this by himself! he seems genuinely impressed that corentin was able to escape, and it feels like he's telling the truth when he says he regrets manipulating corentin's mind and killing varric. and corentin is... well, he wants to see the best in people. he wants to believe people can change. he wants solas to do better.

and solas lies to him. again. the veil is going to come down with the death of elgar'nan—corentin's success was always going to be his failure. from the very beginning, he had been a pawn of the dread wolf, just like elgar'nan said. at every turn, it had been manipulation and doublespeak. were solas' feelings towards corentin, the respect and the regret and the borderline fondness real? maybe.

did it matter? not anymore.

because even though everyone is telling him to try, to give solas another chance, he can't. he already has. and across all of history, thousands upon thousands of years, other people solas cared about and respected gave him chances, and he turned them down every time. and the thing about corentin, the thing that brought him this far and let him kill gods where solas could only imprison them, is that he knows when to move forward instead of stagnating.

so when the time comes, the most genuine person in the world hands a fake dagger to a god, and he offers solas a final regret to carry with him across the veil.