I have some questions I'm curious about from fellow Solavellan lovers all about your Lavellan, Solas and Rook. Answer all or one, up to you!
What does your Lavellan understand about Solas that makes forgiveness possible without excusing what he’s done?
Is there something your Lavellan fundamentally misunderstands about Solas, and that Solas fundamentally misunderstands about your Lavellan? What finally allows them to understand each other more clearly and how does that understanding come?
What is the dynamic between your Lavellan and your Rook?
If your Rook comes to know Solas primarily as an adversary, while your Lavellan’s experience is coloured by their love and history together, where do their interpretations of him overlap - and where do they differ?
Oh, these are some great questions, so thanks for sending them!
What does your Lavellan understand about Solas that makes forgiveness possible without excusing what he’s done?
Iris knows that Solas has a good heart. She saw him wander off to heal the wounded in the Hinterlands, even knowing they would not welcome an apostate mage’s company - especially not one who is an elf. In her heart of hearts Iris can acknowledge that she probably would not have done the same at that point if she had healing abilities.
She also theorized that Solas was originally a spirit well before finding out for certain and could piece together that he had once been Wisdom and had experienced the same sort of corruption that his friend had on the Exalted Plains. With her understanding of how spirits think and operate, she was able to see him as someone in need of help to find a better path, not a being to be shattered.
Is there something your Lavellan fundamentally misunderstands about Solas, and that Solas fundamentally misunderstands about your Lavellan? What finally allows them to understand each other more clearly and how does that understanding come?
On a theoretical level, Iris knew that Solas led a rebellion and that he was a brilliant mage combatant but I think seeing for herself the tactics Solas used between the events of Trespasser and Veilguard was a bit of a shock. To her, he remained a scholar, albeit one with skill in battle, but his ruthlessness and tactical skill was something she had to sit with and come to see as a part of him, just as much as the parts of him that prompted her to fall in love in the first place.
Solas? I don’t think he ever allowed himself to consider the idea that Iris would want a life with him after all he did. He turned around after looking at her one last time, closed his eyes because he wished for her face to be the final thing he saw in the waking world, and was thrown for a loop when she offered to come with him.
What is the dynamic between your Lavellan and your Rook?
Generally a professional one, but I don’t think Mel is someone Iris would have chosen to go after Solas. But, that was the point! Varric chose someone Solas could not predict and it wound up working in the end.
I don’t think Iris was especially impressed with Mel taking advantage of Solas’ workplace health and safety violations by knocking over a statue. She’d wanted to be there to talk to Solas, but after the fact recognized that it was unlikely to have ended well, given Varric’s fate.
If your Rook comes to know Solas primarily as an adversary, while your Lavellan’s experience is coloured by their love and history together, where do their interpretations of him overlap - and where do they differ?
Mel was someone who fell for the Evanuris propaganda. To her, he was a god, even if he claimed otherwise. Learning that Solas and the inquisitor were lovers was a shock, because it humanized Solas, for lack of a better word. He fell in love with a mortal! How could he do that if he was a simple god who saw the realms as playthings?
Where they do overlap is their respect for Solas’ abolitionist efforts. Mel had been enslaved as a child and was rescued by the man who she would come to see as her adoptive father, so she has so much respect for people who free slaves - whether they’re actively going out and breaking chains or advocating in a courtroom or palace. Solas’ efforts to free his people was ultimately what prompted Mel to choose to redeem him: she couldn’t bring herself to believe that a man who freed slaves was all bad, even if his actions had traumatized her.
