#solas greatly disapproves

This, this right here is where VG screwed the pooch because this was the set up for him to change his mind and to put down his proverbial sword and turn around. But then he DIDN'T What does it matter how he feels about it if it never results in actionable change? If in the end it's MYTHAL who decides he's free to stop. He was on the road in Trespasser. We were setting it up. A high approval or romanced inquisitor should have been able to tip the scale in the final scene. But no. If anything they regressed him VG because he kills a friend, uses bloodmagic in a way that is honestly really cruel, and he doesn't seem to really acknowledge or question himself about it at all. It's almost like all the work that was started was undone. He didn't need to kill Varric. He had already killed Felassan and it had a huge impact on him, I think him NOT killing Varric and maybe that being why his ritual failed and him second guessing himself again would have been a show that there'd been some change in him, some progress towards him trying to break free of his self imposed duty. And Bioware can write redemption arcs, they did it for Blackwall. Where he's inspired by the inquisitor and actively turns himself in and redeems himself. We see the change as it happens, we see the benefit of that change after he's redeemed. That's why it's such a huge slap when Solas not only doesn't get that kind of redemption, despite all of the set up for it, but any steps he had been making towards that redemption get swept under the rug and in the end it's not even in his own hands, it's in Mythal's.

And that’s what makes his character and the conclusion to his story feel incredibly underwhelming, I think. He had an opportunity to change. He had the opportunity to be (influenced and convinced, yes) but overall, he had the ability to be able to grow as a character and change his mind through his own accord. With a gentle (or harsh) nudge, yes, but I feel like the choice to change, to want to change, l should have been his in the very end.

And that’s why this doesn’t feel like redemption, because Solas here just feels completely powerless—everything is just happening to him and he just goes along with it because why? It doesn’t feel like he genuinely wants redemption tbh—it feels more so like he’s just being backed into the corner and feels like he has no choice but to want it. And that just feels … cheap. It such an underwhelming, unsatisfying, and frankly depressing conclusion for such a well-written and complex character.

I don’t think it’s out his character to do bad things—but like I’ve said before, it feels like these things were done with the intention of making us see him in more villainous and antagonistic light, and very little else. So they feel kind of hamfisted in there and don’t really serve a purpose in the narrative outside of making us hate him.

I actually really like the idea of his ritual failing because he faltered just that little bit too much in regards to killing Varric. And no matter what comes after that, that’s at least something to cling to: that actually, he’s not completely irredeemable. He’s actually worth trying to save if that’s what you want to try and do.

Unfortunately, they regressed his character so much that there essentially no more grey areas in terms of his character—or anything in the game for that matter. There’s only black and white lines that everything has to exist inside—and I think that’s why Solas feels underwhelming here, because he never has existed in those lines before. He’s redemption was essentially bringing down the Veil—but oh no, bringing the Veil is bad because reasons. People will die, but we don’t actually know the extent of that. We just have to take it on faith that it’s bad because the writers said so.

Even under the best circumstances, I don't believe there was a way to handle them well as a NPC, but they couldn't just leave them out either because as the devs themselves put it the Inquisitor is essential to his story.

So we end up with VG's walking plot device

I think Trespasser is a fantastic DLC. But I’ve always thought it existed within such a strange dichotomy of itself. Because the writing is very good, but at the same time, so blissfully unaware of itself. I would give my left kidney just to talk to the people who wrote it and ask “how could you possibly think that you wrote this in a way that clearly says that the Inquisitor’s story is DONE?” I know I go on and on about this but I just don’t get it.

In making them an NPC, I don’t think they could have eve 100% satisfied everyone. The problem is, it’s not a just a few people that think the Inquisitor should have been the protagonist—it’s a good portion of the fandom (especially outside of the toxic positivity of vacuum that is a lot of fans on tumblr) that think this. I waver between “I would have preferred the Inquisitor wasn’t involved at all” and “at least they were somewhat included.” Because option A doesn’t make any sense. But option B was so incredibly underwhelming and actually insulting if you consider the fact that they were just given the “one-size fits all” treatment. Maybe a hot take, but I would have preferred if they had just died at the end of Trespasser. At least then we wouldn’t be stuck with either option A or B—because they both suck.

As much as it pains me to admit, this is also where I’m at with Solas’ character. I can’t consider VG Solas Solas, because he isn’t. Or, at the very least, he’s only one side of him and that feels like a vast oversimplification of and injustice to his character. I, too, was almost fooled admittedly, and in retrospect, I 100% accredit that to GDL’s voice-acting.

But Solas, in the way that he was written as a character (especially when compared to his DAI and Trespasser writing) felt … hollow. I don’t think Solas was necessarily badly written here, if that makes sense. In fact, I think he’s probably one of the better, if not the best written character in the whole game (which is a low bar, admittedly) but my point is, his writing overall was okay. He had some nicely written lines and well-written moments. He’s still probably a decently written antagonist overall. However, I think a lot of that comes from our previous knowledge of him (I’d be curious to know if any new players thought similarly or differently). I still think he was, like you said, the shell of the character that we know.

The thing that upsets me the most is that Solas is … exactly where he started. The entire world of Thedas is exactly where it started, tbh, but Solas is essentially left trapped in this endless cycle of abuse. And the worst part is: he’s not even aware of it! Because he still thinks Mythal is somehow infallible. There’s no indication that Solas sees his and Mythal’s relationship as problematic or abusive in VG at all even though there are strong indications that it was (and if there is, they’re so small that I must have missed them).

And I do love Solas. But sometimes, yeah, I wish that he hadn’t been romanceable either if this is what we’re left with. Who knew he’d be so damn polarising—to the point where I don’t even want to discuss him because you know, you just know, someone is going to come along and ridicule you for liking him. It seems to be the price of liking him and seeing his character in a sympathetic light, unfortunately.

The worst part is I don’t even think making him not romanceable would have changed anything. Because they fundamentally ruined (perhaps too strong a word but it kinda feels like it tbh) his character, with or without the romance. The Solavellan ending is honestly just an another cut in the thousand cuts that is this game.

Hmm, well, I think it’s definitely fair to say that Justinia wasn’t as bad as Mythal. But I think, over all, the dynamics were the same, if that makes sense? And what I mean by this is that both Solas and Leliana essentially became a weapon to someone else—someone who they loved and saw as a friend, a mentor.

It honestly blows my mind that the Well of Sorrows wasn’t EVEN ONE of the THREE measly little choices that we got. Not that the ones we did get meant much in the end, anyway. But they built it up to be this mysterious choice with unforeseen consequences and it was SO disappointing that those consequences weren’t explored like at all? Not even a little bit? The choice itself is literally the embodiment of something being the “illusion of choice.” Except it’s not even an illusion of choice—it straight up doesn’t matter at all.

I wanted to know so badly where it would lead. Would the drinker turn on Rook? Would they become Mythal’s new host? Her slave? Would it be like an unwilling/willing possession depending on your choices? And, depending on your choices—could they die? Could you find a way to free them from Mythal’s influence, or would you have no choice but to kill them in the end? What purpose would Mythal use them for? Would they slowly lose themselves to the voices? Would it progressively get worse and worse until they could no longer block them out?

I think this tends to be a universal sentiment, anon, unfortunately. If you like romance, no one will take you seriously. And if you don’t, there always seems to be this superiority that comes with it (at least in my experience, I’m sure there are people who just don’t genuinely care for it). But there’s definitely a unspoken stigma over it, I feel.