#favorite ask

OH GOD ANON I THINK I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU.

“only viewing him through the romanced lens gives you a very rose tinted window into the man's mind and you don't get to really see how other people are affected by him.”

“solas had an impact on the wider scope of people he interacted with and not all of the impressions he made were positive.”

^^^^ these have always been my two biggest critiques/points when i talk about the culture surrounding the solavellan ship but also, by proxy, solasmancer culture as a whole (bc some dreadrookers take this mantle up, as well). seeing him as simply yet another romance option, and only seeing him through the lens of his romance, causes a LOT of missed (and absolutely necessary) context and nuance to his character as a whole.

people who don’t romance him, ie. people who have never/will never romance him, are just as valid in their interpretations of him because 1) his friendship path is just as important, and 2) it’s quite literally how everyone else that isn’t a romanced lavellan across thedas sees him in-world. even rook. he has made now over a decade’s worth of modern impressions on those around him, and building on what you said, it’s so very likely a majority of them were not, in any way, positive. especially in the years following trespasser, when he is actively in survival mode and being hunted down cross-continent.

solas comes across as callous and uncaring, or rather— fronts as callous and uncaring to those he doesn’t view as his equal. it was painfully obvious in dai, and even more so in dav with the expansion we got on his character. he is goal-oriented, has a one track mind, and has made plenty points in proving that he will stop at nothing to achieve said goal, all the way up until the end of act 3 in dav.

refusing to acknowledge those characteristics or those very valid viewpoints from others, and instead dismissing them because “well i romanced him so i know him best and therefore i am superior in my knowledge of the depths of his arc” is so shallow in a way that i can’t even begin to describe. at least, no better than you already did, anon.

if you EVER want someone to talk to about this, please dm me. i am obsessed with takes like these and could talk for hours about unromanced solas and how his redemption arc is so much more meaningful when looked at thru an unclouded lens.

May I introduce you to DR. BARBARA AGAU, the first truly original* character I ever made!

* ie, not based off someone I knew irl

Dr. Agau runs Agau Laboratories, the company that stepped up in the early 2030s when the majority of the Amazon rainforest burned. She promised the world that her Spark of Life Experimental Project (SOLE Project) could have produced a modified synthetic human capable of saving said rainforest.

20 years and some failed clones later, the SOLE Project did succeed. The rainforest is mostly lost by the time “Experiment One” proves stable, so Dr. Agau pivots to raising One (aka Beth) to fight the other results of climate crisis. Storms, floods, ice cap degeneration, cleaning waterways, you name it — she is brainwashing Beth to be powerful and, more importantly, obedient.

As you may have guessed, Beth is the book’s protagonist. She runs away from home the labs she was raised in and spends the rest of the time evading Dr. Agau’s attempts to get her back.

𝐒𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐜𝐩

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥

runs away

YESS YES OFC