The Road Less Traveled By

Thank you for the tag @exia-1

I’ve been so very MIA working on prompt lists lolll

Here’s two VERY different vibes in progress for Queer Solas and Inquisitor Week 🧡💚

Friends, care to share your WIPs? I apologize, I am sure I’ve been missing your work lately!

Thank you @exia-1 for the tag! I've been working on my stuff for Solavellan week (which I wish I started about two weeks ago). Almost finished the first one, so here's a little bit of it:

(I posted part of the pattern for this the other day, but I finished Sharanni yesterday. Really couldn't resist adding in a swirl or two).

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

Like in all Solas's memories, he both regrets being convinced of things by Mythal, but also regrets betraying her. But the Mythal we meet in the Crossroads immediately calls into question Solas's regret memories in general, basically implying his memories have morphed over time into a story he's told himself from his own perspective, which are largely filtered through a sentimental lens. But then, the Mythal herself who tells us this is, according to Morrigan, the part of Mythal that is harshest, most resentful, and cold. Which would color her own perspectives.

That's not to get into the overwhelming other evidence about their relationship, and who they both are/have been as people across countless millennia. Every piece of which is fascinating in its own right... and incredibly contradictory.

Solas is sworn to Mythal's service, but his statues exist alongside Mythal's in her temple - he was a fellow god, not a servant. And Solas's memories rarely show him being ORDERED to do anything, but instead convinced by a friend or colleague. But "releasing" him from her service is what breaks him of his burning need to tear down the Veil. But it's not as if he has never defied her or put his quest above her - he quite literally kills her and abandoned the part of her that is left at the end of Inquisition, in order to complete said quest. He speaks of "always following her wherever she would go" as a kind of foregone conclusion from the very first, before they even had BODIES, back when they were spirits. Which speaks of a relationship that likely predates even the concept of servitude or conscription. And he is protective of Mythal and her legacy. Enough to constantly be defensive or wax poetic about her whenever he speaks of her. And also he is extremely bothered if the Inquisitor drinks from the Well, which supposedly binds them to Mythal's will. He's called Mythal's lapdog by Elgar'nan, but it's also probably likely that Elgar'nan (as implied to be Mythal's husband at some point in history) resented Solas's relationship to Mythal. Solas hated the gods enslaving the people, but as per my last, Mythal's followers saw her as someone who firmly rejected obeisance. Seeming to correlate with Solas's own proclamation that "Mythal was the best of [the Evanuris]." Not an easy feat, since apparently there were once many more Evanuris than we currently know about. And yet, Mythal was implied to be married to Elgar'nan, who headed up their whole corrupted pantheon, and who Solas at least seems to have a particular disdain, when it comes to Elgar'nan's lust of power. And yet, Solas also might have some personal reasons to dislike Elgar'nan, beyond whatever he might stand for. Which include murdering Mythal. Which Solas is... not happy about or celebrating, to put it lightly. And there's the fact that Solas still trusts Mythal and meets up with her even during his rebellion. And the fact that, apparently, his trust is at least somewhat earned, as Mythal DOES go challenge them about their use of the blight in their fighting... enough so that it gets them killed.

And much much more!

Like, literally, there's so much. I could just keep going, remembering evidence and contradictions in the way their relationship (and their individual states/roles in their own time) is hinted at.

But always contradictorily. Defying any easy conclusions or categorization.

Which leads into how the conversation between the Veilguard, after seeing some of Solas's memories. With the team disagreeing over whether or not Solas and Mythal were lovers or just very close friends. How that is obviously based on modern conversations about historical figures or relationship depictions: In that boundaries and norms and even relationship types are different across cultures, and oftentimes harder to define through modern lenses. But also there can be an element of intentional obfuscation, when something about a relationship is uncomfortable or politically inconvenient to modern sensibilities, and gets pushed down by readers in a given period.

The effect is the same either way though: An intentional implication that it is extremely hard to completely understand relationships that have a different context and come from a different era. At least without a lot of other information to illuminate that context.

Context which, in the case of Solas and Mythal, we don't really have.

Which makes coming to oversimplistic conclusions about what did or didn't happen between them... around them... what their relationship was at a baseline... whether or not it changed or the lens through which it was viewed would have changed as they moved through the eras... moved from effectively being whole entirely different types of entities...

Just. Impossible to do. In good faith.

(And that's not even getting to how this is likely portrayed this way on purpose; a major theme of the Dragon Age series as a whole has been that history is almost impossible to understand in its reality. Because every person who experiences a historical moment experienced it differently, so even a straightforward historical account lacks details, embellishes, carries bias. Because only certain lenses are preserved enough through history to be passed down to far-flung, future generations - which wildly influences what is known and believed. And because modern political factions have their own agendas and recontextualize/boost/obfuscate historical information whenever its convenient. Like this is all one of the most major themes of the whole franchise - that power and perspective shape knowledge and beliefs.

Trying to assign Solas and Mythal's relationships easy categories/pathologies when the only people who were there and talking about it at all have wildly contradictory opinions, when both of their perspectives are intentionally called into question by the narrative itself, and when we the audience never truly get either one of them to sit down and focus on autopsying this relationship directly...? Like, yeah.

I’ve spent the past couple of months travelling, working, and focusing on my Silmarillion blog, so I haven’t been posting much on my Dragon Age blog or interacting with my mutuals lately.

Of course, that won’t stop me from posting a GIFset of a young, deeply upset Solas trauma-bonding with my OC, because SolasDragonAge has been permanently etched into my brain since 2014 and just doesn’t leave.

2026/8/14 Today's drawing.

the city of los angeles

the city of new york

sex

how drinking alcohol works

how getting high works

how a child of any age speaks

how nuclear physics work

how [my job] works

how debilitating being shot in the shoulder is

how hypothermia works

things I have never before seen someone fake their way through writing about, until today:

SHRIMP COCKTAIL:

banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol

generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is

#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro

And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!

POMEGRANATES:

zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple

thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute

sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.

FRUIT TREES:

zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''

salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE

baander: #cranberry trees

DOUGH/BATTER:

maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre

livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles

lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY

Some other topics:

First, I appreciate that the slides belong only to the Lavellan who won't give up on Solas and reaffirms the love for him.

What I love about this is that it's a response to Lavellan's choice. Lavellan has just learned the worst things about him but still loves him, even though they are now in opposition. And I like that for the Lavellan who rejects him, ends the relationship, vows to stop him no matter what, that Solas respects their choice and that's the end of that. To have that continuing dream connection only exist where Lavellan has chosen not to sever it is such a lovely reactive part of the narrative.

And that admission from Lavellan that they still love him? Must have absolutely thrown Solas (but Lavellan has always had a talent for doing that to him). He's just revealed everything. He's Fen’Harel, he created the veil and is walking the din’anshiral and fully expects that once Lavellan understands what he is and what he intends to do, that will be it.

Nope.

And so it keeps this open bond and door between them that results in these dreams. And I also love the dreams are ambiguous - they never clarify exactly whose dreams they are, just that Lavellan sometimes wakes up from them. They are also plural, so how many dreams and how frequent and when are up to the player and how you might interpret Solas.

The dream slides also reveal a pattern between them. Solas watches sadly from across an endless distance, but he never leaves until Lavellan reaches for him. He wants the connection, he clearly hasn’t stopped loving Lavellan, but he also believes he has no right to it. Looking at Lavellan? Yes, he can allow himself that much. But the moment Lavellan becomes aware of him, starts reaching for him, now it's too close. The possibility of touching, speaking, comforting, arguing, or just being together would mean letting the relationship continue, and that's what he's trying to deny himself. There's almost a moral line too where he can admit he still loves Lavellan, clearly misses them but won't ask Lavellan to keep loving him while he prepares to destroy the world. But he's also selfish and yearny! Lavellan and their love is selfish to him because all he's ever known and been committed to has been service and duty. But he can't let Lavellan go.

So this "endless distance" is also to protect himself. Lavellan is dangerous to his resolve. He can’t even tell himself anymore that Lavellan only loved "Solas". Lavellan knows Solas is Fen’Harel, knows everything now and still wants him. I love the idea that the “endless distance” between them is something Solas himself is maintaining. He keeps Lavellan far enough away that he can still look, but not close enough to remind him too strongly what it feels like to be himself, Solas instead of the Dread Wolf. (To stay with you as Solas, as I wanted - that line from his letter will forever make me emotional.)