Celine

"It's fine. It's not there if you don't look at it. I don't. Harden yourself, you have important things to do. For the people remember? For our people."

So he picks up his broken pieces and try to fix himself, for the cause, for the people.

Thousands of years later when the two old friends reunites, the soldier kills the mentor.

"I'm sorry but the people they need me".

Fans/People calling Solas a racist don’t know a shit about what a racist is. A racist is someone who thinks is own race superior and other races ulterior to his own. A racist thinks that other races than his own are inferior - in intelligence, in capability, in everything, and less lifeworthy or valuable than his own.

That’s not the case with Solas. Solas has not the best opinion on every race in Thedas, admitted, but he does not held the elves (both the Ancient Elves to whom he belongs himself and the modern elves) in high regard either. He has misanthropist tendencies, but being a misanthropist is not the same as being a racist! 

He despises the Qun, not because he’s racist, but because the Qun restrict personal freedom. The Qun dictates your role in both personal and social life, and thus contradicts with freedom. Freedom is something Solas very strongly believes in. For the same reason, he despises slavery. Solas does not think the Qunari race is inferior. On the contrary, he shows deep respect towards those members of the Qunari race who chose to break free from the Qun. If Iron Bull becomes Tal-Vashoth, Solas is among the first to comfort him and greatly respects Iron Bull for it. He’s also not racist towards a qunari Inquisitor, even pointing him out in a conversation with Bull about Tal-Vashoth who aren’t brutes. 

He does not treat the humans in the Inquisition like they’re inferior. While he certainly holds no love for humans, he does not hate them either. He says that people can be trying, but people is referring to people regardless of race. Solas and Cassandra get along rather well, even if their views differ. But they respect another to the point where they as well might be friends. If Solas would be a racist, he would not befriend a member of an inferior race nor show them any respect, because members of inferior races are unworthy of it. He also befriends Blackwall, who’s also human. The reason he does not get along with Vivienne at all is not because she’s human, but because she treats him like he doesn’t know what he’s doing and because she’s just so damned arrogant and because her beliefs don’t align with his. Again, Solas is a strong believer in freedom, whereas Vivienne wants the mages returned in the circles … the circles of magi contradict freedom. Also, Viviennes views on the Fade are pretty much the contrary to Solas’. Solas and Dorian get along well enough as long as the topic of slavery and the accomplishements of Tevinter Mages don’t show up. Solas despises slavery, but for Dorian its not such a great deal because its just so normal back home. But while Solas is quick to point out that tevinter magical techniques often stem from elven magical techniques, he does not treat Dorian in a way that would imply racism! I guess, for Solas are humans some sort of impatient children … but children are not inferior to adults. 

He seems dissapoint in the dwarves, but not because he thinks dwarves are an inferior race. He’s just seen the dwarven race in its prime and now, they’re a dying race and he’s dissapointed that they don’t do anything about it. But he is not above admitting that Varric has a point. A racist would not admit that he’s been wrong concerning the inferior race. The modern dwarves are just not what he’s used to. But he is able and willing to learn, even if it might him some time. A racist would not argue with a member of an inferior race nor would he admit that the member of the inferior race is right about things.

As for the elves … Solas seems not to like them, but its not because he thinks they’re inferior, but because he thinks they’re ignorant. Solas hates ignorance, regardless of who displays it. The city elves don’t even try to recover their lost history and culture. They’re willfully ignorant. Which is bad. The Dalish try to recover what has been lost, but they only remember shreds of shred and get so many things wrong, while they claim to know the truth. They’re unknowingly ignorant. And, as he points out - both in a banter between Lavellan and Solas during the prologue if the middle option is chosen, and in an argument he can have with Lavellan if his approval his low enough -, he’s tried to teach the Dalish, to share his knowledge, but was repeatly derided, ignoerd and even insulted by them. Also, don’t forget that the Dalish paint him as their version of the devil - he’s Fen’Harel - and that MIGHT explain why he doesn’t hold much love for them. But he shows at least some respect towards them, simply because they at least try to remember (even if their attempts are poor). And he falls (possibly) in love with a Dalish woman. A racist would never have a girlfriend who’s a member of an inferior race. A racist would not call her “perfect exactly as you are” if she chooses to keep her vallaslin. Solas is not racist against other elves, he’s prejudiced. (And he doesn’t even hold his own people, the ancient elves, in any high regard either! I’m pretty sure he loved Elvhenan, but in the same way Dorian loves Tevinter. He clearly sees and points out how flawed and corrupt he society of Elvhenan has been.)

But before he disappears, he needs Lavellan to know: what they had was real. 

For me, this is his way of positioning both of them in a shared truth. He loved her. Their connection was real. It's a pre-emptive reassurance, knowing what he’s about to do.

He knows Lavallan will learn horrifying things about him, that she will feel betrayed and for all his layers, all the lies he tells himself, Solas needs her to believe that their love wasn’t manipulation.

He tells her it was real because he needs to protect one sacred thing from everything he’s about to become. For a man already breaking under the burden of regret, who is fractured, who has redefined himself time and again, it's like this is a piece of himself he wants to preserve - the man who was loved, and loved in return.

He tells her it was real not just for her sake, but for his own.

So. Yeah. Do with that what you will.

Bonus:

Here it is my lovelies 💜 my own "Memories of a duet" animation. Solas playing his harpsichord on those lonely nights at the Lighthouse…

✨Seven of Pentacles✨

Reaping what is sown, perseverance

🌿Lily of the Valley🌿

Return to happiness

Vivienne: You should not encourage that thing. Cole: Solas is not a thing.

or

Cole: Solas doesn’t want to hurt people! He’s not that kind of wolf!

or

Cole: You didn’t do it to be right. You did it to save them. Inquisitor: Solas, what is he talking about? Solas: A mistake. One of many made by a much younger elf who was certain he knew everything. Cole: You weren’t wrong.

Or how about the fact that after Solas left, Cole went looking for him in the fade out of compassion, and Solas had to tell him to forget?

Cole's entire being is based around a single attribute: compassion. Because of this, he's drawn to a) people with pain for him to heal and b) people who are kind. He can sense that Solas has much hurt to heal, though Solas is able to conceal it from Cole in ways others cannot, but I think he also cares for Solas because he understands who he is at his core. He understands that despite what Solas has done or plans to do, he doesn't want to hurt people. He doesn't care about being right, he cares about helping. In truth, analyzing Cole and Solas's relationship is extremely revealing of who Solas really is. If the spirit of compassion who can read minds and emotions has so much affection for Solas and sees his motivations as coming from a place of goodness, that seems much more honest and true to me than someone making a judgment of him based outward factors.

Dragon Age Headcanon (Inquisitor Lavellan - Mage):

Dagna designed and built the Inquisitor’s prosthetic. She already had plenty of insight into the Inquisitor’s biology, unique magical signature and the Anchor from her earlier studies in the Inquisition. As an arcanist, with expertise in lyrium and enchantments, there was no one more suited to this task than her. (Well, maybe Sandal but who knows where he is.) 

Solas’s ancient elven magic is incredibly powerful. His foci (the orb) was to be the tool that would allow him to enter the Fade and tear it down. The Anchor, which was created as a result of the Inquisitor wielding that foci - allowed the Inquisitor to open and close Fade rifts - a mark powered by Solas' magic. Mages already can tap into the Fade to use magic, I reason that opening and closing Fade rifts for as long as she did, with ancient elven power coursing through her, allowed her to also absorb the energies of the Fade itself through the Anchor. For almost three years, the Anchor was part of the Inquisitor, becoming intertwined with their very biology. Even though Solas stabilized it and eventually removed it, it is highly plausible that traces of his power also remained in the Inquisitor’s body. 

The key to this prosthetic was lyrium. Lyrium bridges the gap between the Fade and the world - Solas also crafted his body from lyrium so his power is lyrium aligned. I think Dagna used lyrium in such a way that it created a prosthetic that could channel Fade energy even more intensely and even enhance the Inquisitor’s magic. 

I like to think that Dagna embedded enchantments that mimicked some of the Anchor’s lost abilities, such as sealing rifts or dispelling magic. The prosthetic is now the Inquisitor’s staff – they no longer need to carry one around.  

And this prosthetic stays in place because of those energies.  I imagine Dagna found a way to align the lyrium in the prosthetic to resonate with the residual magic left by Solas, creating something like an ethereal signature or a magical magnetic field. If lyrium has a song (vibration), then Solas' magic has its own vibration (song) and Dagna aligned those vibrations to sync.

If the prosthetic is somehow dislodged, it snaps back into place like a magnet returning to its field, keeping the prosthetic in sync with the Inquisitor’s body. 

And because Dagna is Dagna, she made some enhancements along the way, carving glyphs and adding runes to keep the prosthetic stabilized, powerful and aligned with the Inquisitor’s biology, magical energy and the effect of Solas' magic. 

This is why Inquisitor Lavellan is equipped to enter the Fade with Solas during his atonement. The energies of the Fade already exists within her (because of Solas).

I imagine Solas being fascinated by this design, studying it in the Fade, asking Lavellan questions around it.

I love Dagna. I want a DLC now with Cole, Sandal AND Dagna. Throw in Sera for good measure.