#lacemeta

she's brutal. she's compassionate. she's reactive. she's centered. she's in hiding. she's front and center. she's a protector. she's a killer. she's a farmer. she's a warrior

i feel like she's a being of dichotomies. it's even in her name: lace and harding

and in veilguard, she, a dwarf, gains magic. this is the ultimate dichotomy, but it's also a dichotomy-that's-not: it's a confluence, a point at which two seemingly contradictory forces meet and create a unified whole

(ppl who want to be tagged for my meta under the cut: as always, lmk if you'd like on or off this list!)

and how i view her

brutal | efficient | merciful

she kills seemingly without qualm, and compares it to killing wolves as a farmer. while this can be viewed as a process of dehumanizing, i see it more as a realistic assessment of needing to kill threats. but notably, kill them. not wound. not scare. not deter. kill

there is a plain efficiency to that. there is a plain efficiency to her archery. this is where i see mercy tied into her character: sometimes, things need to die. sometimes people do, too. she will kill them without hesitation or mourning, but she will not torture them, she will not make them suffer, she will not enact violence for its own sake but only as an end. i think killing people has that same hard kind of mercy whenever possible

mirroring | people pleasing | observant

growing up, she felt obliged to mirror the people around her, to make herself pleasant and agreeable. i think the mask people wear is a part of them, and thus, i think this is a part of her. but it is clearly not the totality of her, just one facet brought out, honed, practiced

this ties into how observant she is, because she had to be. to mirror, one must observe. one must understand. otherwise the mirroring fails. so she learned, and learned quick, how people were. how they would react to her. how much and in what ways they could be trusted, how vulnerable she could be around them (although her willingness to be vulnerable had a permanent cap on it for most of her life)

it is also why she was able to see the inquisitor, to see the person under the title. it's why she is able to see solas, to see the man under the title(s). she can see the mask, even if she can't see past it, and she knows intuitively that there is more under the surface

loyal | compassionate | forgiving

those she cares about, those she knows she can trust with herself to whatever degree, she will defend to the end. they are her family, in a way: they are the people she will care about even if they hurt her. we see this with solas, someone she still cares about, still wants to talk to, still wants to understand (although with solas, i think part of that is how much she respects varric and how she wants to honor his memory, his death, and his goals)

her compassion is one of her defining characteristics, and for good reason. also, it is evidence of a profound strength... and, very possibly, a deep, habitual self-dismissal

angry | reactive | rash

just the same, there is a core of deep anger in her. the result of many things, one of which is a lifetime of making herself small and palatable and swallowing back "bad" emotions. i also see this in her restless desire for action, because to linger, to dwell, to consider, is to make herself vulnerable to that well of buried feelings

i don't think she desires violence. i think she desires action. and that in her work, the two are interwoven

hard working | self contained

as a result, she throws herself into her work. she tries to become it. and what is her work? a scout. an archer. a tracker. these are not gentle jobs, not delicate occupations. they come with an inherent violence. even being a farmer came with a violence, the violence of the protector, the violence of the shepherd

because it wasn't the elvhen who attacked the titans, it was the evanuris. in fact, the elvhen were slaves to the evanuris, and she knows that. but she still - understandably! i wanna make it clear this is not a critique, it's a really good, interesting bit of characterization - blames all elves for it to a degree

the elvhen were victims of the evanuris, just as the dwarves were, just as the titans were. and it's this really messy place because, yes, the elves almost certainly went to battle because the evanuris commanded them to do so, and yes, the evanuris were not originally seen as gods but as generals, so one could assume free elves still willingly(-ish) fought for them

but ultimately, the destruction of the titans only happened after solas took form (and likely not immediately after, either - he took form to help mythal, and they developed the plan for the dagger and then created it, all of which likely took time) and solas was only called when elgar'nan was already beginning to exert control

really, modern dwarves and modern elves share a historical enemy, and it's not each other, it's the evanuris. elves have had an extremely hard history: they had what we can safely assume to be a period of freedom, taken away (presumably slowly) as they became enslaved to the evanuris. then solas' actions resulted in the unintentional destruction of arlathan and stripping the elves of their immortality, yes, but also a significant portion of their magical power, and killing a great deal of them in the process. the survivors were scattered and lacking a societal center, effectively displacing them as the "reigning race," although again, that's a faulty view of the elvhen even at the time, because they were enslaved by their own leaders

with the elves being disparate and scattered and the dwarves having been forced underground - and the kossith presumably becoming the beginnings of the qunari around about this time - the stage was clear for humans as a race to become the power in thedas, and they killed or enslaved many elves. correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't recall anything about humans enslaving dwarves: of course, trade with dwarves was necessary due to lyrium, and the cultural pressure for dwarves to stay underground (likely stemming from a fear of reprisal should they travel back into what had then become elvhen territories) means that surfacer dwarves must exist largely unchallenged. but elves provided no material benefit to humanity, and so were treated as interlopers, outliers, "savages," or - horribly - opportunities

and it's really, really interesting to see lace have to grapple with all of this, because she obviously has a great deal of sympathy for slaves, but she seems hesitant to connect the dots about the elvhen. she acknowledges that solas was right to move against the evanuris and try and free his people, but she still blames elves as a whole for what became of her people