What's all this about Solas speaking in iambic pentameter? English isn't my first language so I never noticed anything odd about the way he talks, but your blog is the first time I've seen it mentioned by anyone
hello! ◕‿◕ Solas sometimes speaks in a specific pattern or rhythm. It sometimes gets described as or compared by people to iambic pentameter. (which is a type of rhythm common in traditional English poetry. Shakespeare used it in his sonnets and plays.) Though, I'm not sure that it's actually literally that or always that. The main point is that at those times, he's speaking particularly poetically, with a specific poetic rhythm in his speech. (Like where the stress on syllables is and the 'beats' in his speech.) Occasionally, the Inquisitor's dialogue line[s] in response to him are the same.
When Trick Weekes wrote Solas in DA:I, they wrote some of his key scenes to KD Lang's cover of the song Hallelujah on a loop. They talked about some of their process and the reasons for the use of this technique in terms of Solas' characterization in this DA:I-era blog post:
Trick Weekes: "When Solas talks about things that he saw in the Fade, things that speak to a distant past, I needed him to sound ever so slightly otherworldly and wistful – someone remembering a dream with a sense of both sadness and inevitability.
If you follow [that link] and look at some of Solas’s lines, you may notice a familiar rhythm come out. It would have been forcing it to give lines the same rhyme scheme, but giving the words the meter captured some of that wistfulness and made Solas sound ever so slightly otherworldly.
(In the rare cases the player got into the same rhythm, there was always an approval bump from Solas. For that brief period, it was like the player was thinking like he did.)
I used this a few times over the game, and I love what it did to his voice. Also, Cori (who edited Solas) is exceedingly kind for putting up with my request that changes to those lines keep this surreptitious rhythm."
[source]
An example of when it happens in DA:I is:
"I've journeyed deep into the Fade // in ancient ruins and battlefields // to see the dreams of lost civilizations.
I've watched as hosts of spirits clash // to reenact the bloody past // in ancient wars both famous and forgotten.
Every great war // has its heroes. // I'm just curious // what kind you'll be."
Compare this with the song's lyrics:
"I heard there was a secret chord // That David played, and it pleased the Lord // You don't really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth // The minor fall, the major lift // The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah // Hallelujah // Hallelujah // Hallelujah"
An example from Trespasser is:
"I lay in dark and dreaming sleep [I heard there was a secret chord]
while countless wars and ages passed [That David played, and it pleased the Lord]
I woke still weak a year before I joined you. [You don't really care for music, do ya?]" etc.
Recent mentions of this are:
Q. Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter?
A. “Massive kudos to Patrick, who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character. It’s the same Solas you know and love (or hate depending on who you are). The same writer. So I think the answer is yeah, it’s Solas.” – John Epler
[source: BioWare dev Discord Q&A on June 14th]
User: "you really went off with solas. but the iambic pentameter makes writing fanfic dialogue for him so treacherous..."
Trick Weekes: "It doesn't always have to be in the cadence! Just when he's deeply feeling The Old Days! He's written in standard prose 99% of the time!"
[source]
I think he does it a bit in the gameplay reveal video [Veil ripping scene with Varric] too. hope this helps :>
[msg refs this post]
[For the developer Q&A from June 14th on Discord: Notes are here, re-watch link is here]
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really genuinely more n more sometimes struggle understand why so many people so against mild autism severe autism
all arguments don’t make sense to me when switch autism for another thing?
like mild depression not saying you have less depression than severe depression
n. to have mild depression mean your struggle clinically significant enough. but mild in comparison to what depression could be.
think lots disabled people feel like not struggle bad enough. which include severely disabled, not uniquely “mild” label thing? like me too? n also it not change what you able or not able do though?
if you argue there no mild depression severe depression it all just depression most people look at you silly
n don’t see it as inherently dehumanize either? like if have (& back when had) severe depression n people treat me bad abuse me for it (they did). think most people able know it fault of ableist people who abuse me, not caused by label of severe depression?
like to me mild severe just facts?
maybe it different because developmental disability which people treat as if nondisordered personality trait?
but then people argue against this also say have severe ADHD?
like why autism so special
genuine don’t understand
bc guess it really clear to me n not able ever imagine understand anyone think different… again
(if dont know you please don’t try explain it to me thanks)
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I'm thinking abt that pretty fall leaves embroidery pattern post and about how like... it is categorically a repost, it's a reupload. right? a thing that is generally disliked. but because it's credited, it's genuinely boosting the artist in question.
and it could ALWAYS be like this. reposting content could ALWAYS be a symbiotic relationship, but because sourcing back to the original creator of something is so uncommon, it's just easier to ask people not to repost it at all. and people still don't understand the difference. or they'll go to the effort of cropping out usernames/signatures to repost something, which is More Effort than literally crediting the creator of something you liked enough to want to repost.
Like. I literally don't actually care if my own shit gets reposted, you have to understand. I just don't want it STOLEN. But "do not repost" is easier to write on my art than "you can repost this, but don't alter the image/remove my signature, don't you dare write 'credit goes to the artist' because that is not credit, please link back to my original post or someplace that you can actually find me. please use an actual link/url instead of writing a non-clickable link of my username, because making it text instead of a clickable link cuts the number of people who will go to the effort of visiting my own page in Half."
All those aggregate themed accounts, those fuckin annoying as hell instagrams and facebook groups that are like "body positive art we love wamen 💕 hashtag feminism" and then MASS-STEAL plus sized art created by women, if pages like these that always go and steal my older self-portraits and other works... If they just put a link to my prints of those pieces in the text of those posts, or, fuck, my commission info page? I would literally be living on the moon right now. I would have a house on the moon
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