The Pasture

And to me this is his lowest, darkest point in the film. This is the moment when it’s confirmed for him that not only is his girlfriend not the real Nikki - which tbh might have felt like a bizarre relief - but that the real Nikki is in there and suffering horribly, which is probably his worst fear realised. And this moment is when he gives in to the darkest and worst version of himself and asks Nikki, the real Nikki, ‘would it be so bad?’. He knows it IS so bad, but I think he’s so scared and broken in that moment that he is at his weakest and most cowardly, and we know he was already pretty weak and cowardly.

So it’s interesting for me that this moment, when he gives in to the situation for a second and considers accepting the magic and allowing Nikki to keep suffering (which, now he knows he wasn’t imagining things, would make him actively her abuser), he takes on this shadowed appearance that the wish-induced spectre wearing Nikki’s skin so often has. He takes on the evil; for a moment, he is no longer a passive co-victim of his wish, but in control and in collusion with that power. I don’t think he would actually be able to do that to Nikki, and we saw that he was ultimately willing to die to save her from his actions, but still. For a moment.

repost of a piece I did few years ago

“Solas knows everything about us. Who we are. How we work. Our strengths and weaknesses.”