#this game has some interesting... things...

like the opening showdown at solas' ritual is such a "we tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!" type of situation lmao. after 10 Whole Years, nobody in the inquisition learned anything new about solas' plans or motives? the entire double blight thing and the purpose of his ritual is a complete surprise to them bc they never... managed to find ANY information on this? if "archdemons are sealing the black city and it opens after the blights" was a common fan theory and implied in previous games even before being confirmed, and the entire premise of the inquisition post-trespasser was "we're going to turn over every stone and figure out what this guy is planning" then how did they not find anything actually useful to bring to bear against him, besides varric's somewhat unconvincing ted talk?

and i don't think this is a "well, solas is just SO secretive and SO great at hiding info, that no one ever guessed what was going on😌" type of thing, bc... the entire point of inquisition was showing that "divinity" is a construct, and everyone is fallible? so it's actually counterproductive to that theme to show him as having this infallible knowledge that no one else in the world has? no one else in thedas ever thought "hm, there are 7 gates to the black city, in the well known chant of light that i read every day, and there are 7 archdemons! why do these numbers match?" even as a conspiracy theory? no one in the inquisition went "hm, weird that solas got so upset about the archdemons when he was with us! what was he thinking about?" to investigate as a lead? the grey wardens have never looked into "hey, what does happen after we run out of blights?" as a question? obviously blackwall would not know if they had, but they're not stupid, they should have been curious? the elves and the dwarves know absolutely nothing useful about their own divine/historical figures that are locked in the black city/generating blight?

and solas is SUCH a dick to grey wardens and dwarves and dalish and tons of other people! and the entire point of his character is to show that his wisdom is limited by his prejudices and ego and isolation! and it is likely for the wardens and dwarves and dalish to have actually useful information that he never had access to, but the inquisition could get to, if it looked. bc these factions are far more layered and important than what solas sees them as. but now the conclusion is... well.... no one but solas knew jack shit about these topics. so, was he technically correct in dismissing everyone else from the start(?) low approval and xenophobia win(?) never listen to anybody if you think they're lesser than you, bc they don't actually know anything useful(?) 😭

and the entire premise of the high approval inquisitor/solas relationship is them proving a lot of his biases wrong! they're not intentionally setting out on a mission of "i am going to force this 10 000 year old sunk cost fallacy immortal to reckon with the fact that i'm a person with equal rights to him", but they do so regardless! varric nearly wins the whole "what if you were a lone survivor on a desert island" argument, without even understanding what they were arguing about! so, if they're actually setting out with the goal to change his mind, and with knowledge of who he actually is besides "weird hermit with bad opinions on every race including his own," then... they should continue that thread and have the inquisition make a genuinely compelling attempt to show him information he doesn't have?

and also, i don't think this necessarily has to work! if they need to keep him as a villain, it would be interesting if solas, even if given some new info - still tragically refused, became as prideful in his own ideology as the evanuris, and continued on his same antagonistic course, and then had to be stopped by force. and it would be EXTREMELY heartwrenching if he killed varric after that genuine attempt! but the fact that it's never even tried is such a ???. why even dangle the option in previous games, then?

but ok! let's say they wanted to get rid of the high approval "prove me wrong" vibe entirely, and just make solas a straight out villain.

he has no agents! no schemes! no terrifying dream sequences! his only crime onscreen is... accidentally killing varric in a somewhat dumb way that makes both of them look bad? tfw varric, an extremely charming, eloquent guy from the most mugging-prone city in thedas, decides to do a "your plans are bad, bc even the ones that were successful and objectively decent, sucked. stop doing anything" ted talk, to his friend that he otherwise has good success in arguing with. and then wanders into melee range. and then solas, 10 000 year old magical being who doesn't even want to exist in a physical form, while holding a priceless mystical artifact, decides to stab him with the artifact. instead of casting Any Spell. i would totally buy it if solas blasted varric into a wall and broke his neck, or turned him into a statue, but knife fighting each other like level 2 rogues is.... cringe for both of them 😔

and then the only scheme solas has is luring rook into a prison that... they escape within weeks? he doesn't even give them fucked up nightmares or anything? for some reason, despite making them hallucinate varric while he's trying to foment regret in them, he has varric be... fairly nice to them? why? make fake varric guilt trip them constantly instead to intensify their regrets, if that's his angle? guilt trip them about releasing the blights, and then he could even parallel their regret about that, with his regret for destroying arlathan? if he's supposed to be cold-bloodedly manipulating rook to escape, then commit to it! he's SO useless in general!

i was expecting some horrible, galaxy brain schemes of making the tevinter and qunari armies fight each other to cover for his agents. assassinations, blackmail, court intrigue, idk. stuff that really makes you think about how brutal he must have been during his rebellion, and how easy it is for him to slip from "arguing with iron bull that people shouldn't relish in killing bc it's wrong to devalue anyone's life" to "welp. time to get my hands bloody again to do the job :/" dread wolf mode. but instead he's just in a shitty fade terrarium for most of the game? what was the point of hyping him up as this ruthless mastermind with tons of hidden followers, then?