Abelas'Glossy Lip Combo

Solas + How do I even begin to explain Regina George?

and varric is, from the city with 30-50 feral knife-wielding goons per square block. he's shorter than solas to begin with and is a novelist who uses a crossbow, so even if this was a Completely Mundane fight, he would have trouble. solas is 5000 years old, spent most of that time at war, and probably gained competency with most types of weapons just out of necessity. even as a normal apostate he had spells, and now he can also turn people into stone by looking at them sternly, and magic is even more instinctive to him than any kind of physical moves. and varric is a very eloquent person, who is a centrist, but genuinely good at empathizing with specific people, and already has a rapport with solas, and has won arguments with him before without even trying.

and then this Encounter plays out as: varric goes "solas. you fucking idiot. it was really dumb of you to rebel against a slavery society and then stop the blight from overrunning the world :/ this is why you're wrong now." and then he walks up into melee range and starts trying to wrestle the knife out of solas' hands. and then solas stabs him for some reason instead of just reflexively turning him into a statue or blasting him away with magic. hello.

So you're telling me there's this whole specie of people who... Technically "shouldn't" exist? Whose literal existence is the reason why the Blight exist? That's the whole thing?

Alright, elves came from spirit, I don't mind, cool I guess. But them making bodies for themselves and hurting the Titans in the process is what started the war between them, ultimately escalating into the Titans being made tranquil by Solas and Mythal, resulting in their dreams becoming the Blight.

Not to mention all the implication in the Chant of Light.

so, the elves are first introduced in dao as a very clear jewish/roma/indigenous sort of allegory, in how they're legally considered lesser, blamed for any societal problems, forced off their ancestral lands and into desperate poverty and segregation, and are hunted by the Fantasy Church for practicing their culture. this was clear both just from playing the game, and the writers' own out of universe statements about their historical inspirations. the dragon age elves are relatable to tons of people, bc as ham-fisted as it's sometimes written, i think anyone of a minority ethnicity/religion, or a history of colonization, will find it resonant to their own experience and feel a sense of sympathy with them.

then, they bring in the ancient elf empire stuff - which kind of starts to break this allegory, because now it's like... ok, this very oppressed group USED to be super powerful, decadent, really cruel, and ~as bad~ as the worst empire currently around. and actually, they were SO powerful and full of hubris, that they caused their own problems and oppression! which is kind of a difficult message to put across, bc it's unpleasantly similar to irl arguments for colonization and slavery - basically saying "oh well, their culture was really fucked up to begin with, so it wasn't even the colonizers' fault for the terrible state they're in now (after the colonizers invaded and plundered them)"

i personally think the ancient elf stuff can work ok, with a sort of caveat - there is also the sort of irl toxic historical nostalgia where people try to argue that past cultures were super peaceful and perfect and enlightened. when really, it was never perfect, and trying to idealize any historical period will only backfire. so that can kind of work as an analogy for the ancient elf stuff. but it REQUIRES there to be development for the modern elves, and for them to have differing opinions on their own past - some can be full blown elf nationalists who are pining for the Old Days without understanding them very well, others are more ambivalent, others are fully rejecting it, others are into the art and culture but not the militarism, etc. this is my personal opinion, probably others would find the entire ancient elf concept more or less irritating based on their own cultural viewpoint.

but THEN, they don't do that at all. they actually sideline the modern elves entirely, so they have very little opinion or reaction to their past, and no distinct modern culture either. and it goes even further with the Ancient Sins. not only were the elves super powerful, they also caused every problem in thedas. and they were literally born from forcibly stealing blood out of other creatures. which to me is honestly like... an insane sort of conspiracy theory style racism, where a marginalized group is framed as evil and unnatural just for existing? except they made that Literally True within the setting. so the conclusion is... elves aren't just a group of people who look slightly different and have a unique culture/religion that is frowned upon. they ARE unnatural and caused problems just by existing, so it would have been better for them to not have existed in thedas? the elven gods ARE all evil and it's better if the elves become andrastians or atheists instead? tevinter empire ideological win? 😭

and then there's really silly stuff like bellara apologizing to harding for her ancestors attacking the titans... when bellara has no rights anywhere in thedas. she is a dalish apostate, in a world where apostates get killed or imprisoned, nobility hunt dalish elves for sport, and there's an entire city elf origin showing how poorly elven women specifically are treated. and harding is... a surface dwarf who was just chilling and living on a farm before dai, haha. in what way is bellara or any other elf benefiting from the titans being harmed? no one explains this, and no one actually makes an attempt to fix the titans either, so it kind of comes off as... empty guilt tripping with no actual goal of reparations.

which is exactly how many white people act irl when doing a sort of hollow signaling of acting guilty to Be A Good Person, but not wanting to actually change their behaviour to help anybody. so it's very goofy that they haphazardly put that plot line onto bellara, the asian looking elf who logically has zero social standing anywhere in thedas. and then harding herself doesn't do anything much for the titans either? what exactly is the end goal of this apology? makes no sense. doesn't compel me.

this is a very strange understanding of colonialism, which seems like it's not based on "this person is benefiting from oppression or stolen resources" but "my 5000 year old ancestor may have killed your 5000 year old ancestor :( i'm so sorry :(" haha. which is not the point of why people care about inequality - if you go far back enough in history, probably everyone's ancestor has killed someone else's. who cares. the problem is when that violence or theft has measurably benefited one group over another, to the point where even their descendants now are still privileged from their ancestors' crimes.

which the elves are not! they're in shambles! objectively speaking, they have no resources, no unified leadership, no place of safety at all, their culture nearly got eradicated multiple times. but the writers somehow want to position them as both victims of oppression who are facing hardship all over thedas... as well as having Evil Deities™️, whom they have to disavow to be Good People™️. and also their current oppression was kind of their fault for toppling their own society to begin with. and their ancestors only existed by stealing blood, and invented the blight, which threatens everyone. and the modern elves get nearly zero content beyond that. so... what is the conclusion there besides either incoherence, or an uncharitable "this culture was actually bad from the very start, and has contributed nothing to thedas except blight and evils?"

yeah i agree! i was honestly hoping vg would add some ~grey morality~ in there, for once, bc otherwise it was SO awkward to just... pin literally every crime in thedas onto the elves? like framing them as first the most oppressed group, and then responsible for Original Sin Itself, just by existing, is kind of sad, and has terrible implications.

it was already set up that the dwarves themselves erased the titans from their own histories. and how their "hivemind" actually worked is unclear - if they all liked it, surely they'd have tried to remember it? and there were hints that the idea of "exiling" people from the stone was very old, and the casteless in dragon age are a remnant of a really ancient idea, which must have actually HAD a physical effect beyond social ostracization when they were still a hivemind - similar to how the vallaslin are just cultural to the dalish, but had an actual magic effect on the ancient elves.

so i figured they'd go with like... there was a pro-titan and anti-titan civil war situation already happening with the dwarves, and so the elves, naturally, sided with the anti-titan faction. they could've EASILY even spun it to other elves as a moral argument of "ohh, the titans are oppressing these poor little flesh people :( we can help them if we take bodies :) and also then they give us lyrium afterwards :) :)" which is still a very standard colonial method! and makes sense as a "this was a slippery slope, and they became powerhungry and violent over time", but adds more nuance, and gives the dwarves something to do in the narrative.

like what actually happened to the dwarves after the elves won against the titans? were they trading with the elves? were they pissed off and fighting them as retaliation? did they mean to hurt the titans that badly, or did they not realize it would have a permanent effect? was it the war, or the veil, that had the major effect on the titans? there had to be tons of time in between the titans getting killed/tranquilized and the veil going up, so... they had to have some kind of interaction between the elves and dwarves? why does june have such a geometric and dwarven vibe to his mosaics? was there disagreement on whether to remove the titans from the memories or not? why did they decide to do that? etc.

I'm gonna make it worse. I'm struggling to believe the writers could have been this offensive accidentally. They made the Blood Libel a fact in universe. They made the religion of the Native RomaJews explicitly a deception when the Christianity stand in has escaped that treatment. In doing so, they evoked the conspiracy theory of the Cabal- a sinister order of Jewish wizards who secretly control the world.

And you know the wells? It was said that Jewish and Roma people poisoned wells during the Black Death, and that's what caused it. Roma are still blamed for spreading disease in this day and age- it impacted how communities were dealt with during Covid-19 lockdowns. So while most people probably don't know this one, it's not some misty remnant of the past. Making the people with a close bond with their noteworthy animals which pull their extremely obvious caravans; who are portrayed early as having bared midriffs and also have spiritual markings (not common these days but not from nowhere) be responsible for a plague by simply EXISTING?!

CHOICES WERE MADE.

(There are blood stealing lizard people?! THERE ARE BLOOD STEALING LIZARD PEOPLE. That is... CHOICES. Just. Siiiiigh.)

And in Veilguard they are doubling down on the sentiment that it is possible to DESERVE oppression.

It's not. Not ever.

And also, belief that people have powers beyond "normal" people is a thing in real life as well. Gypsy curses. Superpredators. "Women-and-or-Black-people don't feel pain". These are real beliefs people profess which are still used as justification for real world oppression. Hell, I'm having a dawning realization about the arguments against trans people in sports. It's the same old story.

DRAGON AGE INQUISITION + VEILGUARD SPOILERS

SPOILERS

Do not interact with this post or watch it if you do not want to be spoiled for Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Age.

I made a video compiling similarities between Solas DragonAge and Emet-Selch FinalFantasy because idk I just wanted to see the video proof with my own eyes. I was trying to figure out why one of them (Emet) had a much more satisfying plot and character ending to me, and what could be changed about Solas' story to make it more satisfying to me. And anyway, I stopped adding examples not because I ran out of even more similar lines, but because the video was going to be far longer than tumblr accepts as a video upload. I had not really gotten to the point of finding examples in Endwalker, this is mostly Shadowbringers and Inquisition. So I was only like halfway done. There is so much more than this. I didn't even get into the monster transformations or their very beautiful and noble best friends or their estrangement and reconciliation with a mother goddess who caused them great pain or the part where they both play emotionally intelligent therapist to their very irritated enemies or the romances or....

the ambassador 

Look, I love Origins as much as everyone. But to be frank: you could cut every companion except Alistair, Morrigan and Loghain and the plot could still work. Once you've finished the mission where you recruit a companion, there aren't other main quests that involve them in any way.

Oghren and Wynne could have stayed home after their recruitment missions for all the difference it would make to the main plot. Sten, Leliana and Zevran could vanish and nothing would change, because once they're on your team, they don't interact with the main plot at all. (There's the Temple of Sacred Ashes, I suppose - but even then, you'd be going on that quest whether Leliana and Wynne were there or not, and it's very telling that they can both die here and next to nothing in the rest of the game is impacted.)

Again: I love Origins. This doesn't detract from any of these characters being great, or from the story being great. It just means there's a layer of separation between the two. They're involved in the story, but they're not driving it, and you seldom get to see them have strong feelings about it.

DA2 is a huge step up. Your companions' personal stories are integral parts of the main plot. You can't do the Deep Roads expedition without witnessing Karl's death and its impact on Anders. You can't enter Act 2 without seeing Varric's brother betray him, or watching your sibling either die or begin a new path in life. Act 2's climax happens because of choices Isabela and Aveline have made. Act 3's endgame is all about Anders making one enormous decision. Even Fenris and Merrill, who have the fewest ties to the plot, have strong reasons to be invested in the Mage/Templar conflict.

And then Inquisition just... backslides. There are multiple companions you don't need to recruit at all, or can send away with zero alteration to the main plot. Your companions don't like Corypheus because he's bad, but no one - except maybe Varric - has any strong personal feelings about him. They have no personal stake in defeating him, not like Alistair has a personal stake in opposing Loghain, or Anders in opposing Meredith.

We go to the Winter Palace, and Vivienne is not made a part of that story. We have a whole subplot about the Wardens, and Blackwall only gets a couple of extra lines, if you even bring him. Their personal arcs could have been somehow impacted by these missions, and they're just... not. Sera is packed with internalised self-hatred that manifests as trying to distance herself from elven culture, to the point of sometimes lashing out at other elves. And despite all the missions you do where elven history features... Sera's growth past that flaw happens entirely offscreen between the base game and Trespasser?????

IMO, this is one of the biggest reasons why Corypheus is such a bland villain. He doesn't make anyone grow, except by starting a plot for them to be part of. He doesn't challenge them emotionally. No one is invested in him. Because no one interacts with the darn plot.

Veilguard, though? Veilguard keeps your companions interacting with the story the whole way through. The Treviso/Minrathous choice affects both Lucanis and Neve heavily, and impacts who they become for the rest of the game. These cities are personal to you, even if you're not a Crow or Shadow Dragon, because your companions love them.

The Siege of Weisshaupt is beyond personal to Davrin and Lucanis, both of whom are entrusted with major parts of the quest: trying to kill the archdemon and Ghilan'nain. Lucanis is affected by his failure to kill Ghilan'nain for ages afterward. Davrin is haunted by survivor's guilt; he should have died when he struck down the archdemon. He's alive. How can he live with that?

Whenever killing the gods becomes a possibility, Rook hands the lyrium dagger to Lucanis. When the squad go to fight the gods' dragons with the Wardens, Taash is the one to flush the first dragon out. When you infiltrate the Venatori, Neve tricks your way in, and everything that happens is especially weighty to Bellara, whose people have been abducted. On Tearstone Island, because of how Lucanis and Spite have grown, they strikes true.

Did you not hate Elgar'nan before that mission? Because you probably will after you watch him capture Bellara or Neve, and see his fellow god kill Harding or Davrin.

You know what's a great piece of writing? There's no reason Emmrich shouldn't have been an option to deal with the wards on Tearstone Island; he's one of the ideal options to take out more wards with the Veil Jumpers in the final mission. But you can't select him to do it. Because Emmrich has far less personal investment in the Elgar'nan battle than the other two. This is Neve's city. This is the monster who tries to call himself Bellara's god. The game makes sure the characters who take control of the Blight at the end are the ones with the greatest stakes in doing so.

One of your companions, not you, wrests command of the Blight from Elgar'nan. The final mission depends on how well you've come to know each companion's skills. They're just... always involved.

And they're invested, too. The companions all have serious personal reasons to hate the antagonists by the end. Lucanis and Neve have either seen their city burn, or know it happened at the cost of their friend's (and potential partner's) hometown. Davrin has seen his order devastated. These are Bellara's and Davrin's supposed gods, and instead of helping the elves reclaim their history and culture, they're trying to enslave the world. Harding learns that the Evanuris maimed and destroyed her Titan ancestors.

Emmrich and Taash have perhaps the smallest emotional tie - and sadly I do think Emmrich especially gets underutilized in the plot. But heck, Taash is still hella motivated by the way the gods are abusing dragons. And Emmrich is tied thematically to the main conflict. He's facing the question of immortality, while nigh-immortal beings are right in front of him, proving how that gift can be abused. The final choice of his personal arc is whether he's willing to embrace his personal, mortal attachments, at the cost of consequences that terrify him... you know, the same question that Solas faces at the end.

And don't even get me started on how everyone is emotionally tied to Solas. Harding and Neve watched him kill Varric in front of them. Everyone not dead or captured has to watch him drag Rook into the Fade. Just about every companion faces some kind of huge regret or failure at some point, in constant foreshadowing for Solas's prison of regret: both the literal one he sticks Rook in, and the mental one of his own making.

Whether romanced or befriended.

Of course, I'm going to focus on Solavellan for this.

Inspired by this post (x)

You go to Solas to seek answers, advice, and knowledge. And he approves.

Such as in regards to his life, experiences in the Fade, and knowledge of spirits.

The approval dialogue plays out in a respectful, inquisitive, and knowledge-seeking way, especially in Haven.

Then you reach Skyhold, and you can ask for advice in regards to the Grey Wardens, Orlais, and Corypheus.

But what if find most interesting in perspective of Veilguard, you can knock him back down a peg when he becomes Pride (at least that's my interpretation) when discussing the Dalish

The full dialogue tree and credit can be found here (x)

Solas is finally not a leader of a rebellion, he is not even an adviser. His title is the Inquisition's Fade expert.

He had a lot of time on his hands, so much time he got to paint murals.

Do you know what's easier than lying? Not lying. He literally could just be the nerd that he was who had all the Inquisition's resources when it came to gaining knowledge through books and tomes the Inquisition acquired. And occasionally answer the Inquisitor's questions. He was so himself that he fell in love. Because he let himself believe the lie that he was just Solas.

“You were never a god/You are a terrible god. Now you want who I guide?/You want my guidance?”

Or, the more fun translation:

"Yo! False god! You want my help?" (very cheeky)

Basically calling Elgar'nan a weakling and mocking him for needing to trap Rook in the Fade.

To which Elgar'nan replies, very annoyed:

He basically shouted: “Elgar’nan! My Bro! Fake God! Want some help with that?”

#frankly in trying to describe the scene to my husband #the best i could do was “the vibes are he yelled ”you a bitch“ at elgar'nan in elven. i don't know what he said but that's the vibes.” #this translation is so fucking him though now that he's openly being a lil shit instead of the backhanded barbs from dai

.

#my god #the lethallin did throw me off that first playthrough because... why on earth would solas refer to elgar'nan that way #but if it was basically to say 'hey bro you need help with that loser' #that makes more sense

.