arlathvhenan

[arlathvhenan]

#beautiful

[arlathvhenan]

I decided to torture myself and try to finish this for #SolavellanDAy  and here it is, I have not slept much hahaha. It is a little prequel to my Dinan'shiral verse. The QR on teh alst page directs to the next bit on teh story but just in case I will link the 2 other parts here :)

continue on:

Part 1 of Dinan’Shiral verse

Part 2 of Dinan’Shiral verse

#ooff #my heart

[arlathvhenan]

An Argument in Favor of Solas as the Family Dog

It’s been posited, sometimes facetiously, that Solas was the “family dog” in his younger days. It’s a theory I have been kicking around for a while. If I’m right (and I’m probably not) Solas as the equivalent to the family dog makes a lot of sense – especially when it comes to what he has done in the past and what he plans to do in the future.

My theory is based on the number and positioning of the many Fen’Harel statues found throughout Thedas and in some of the places our Inquisitor travels to in Trespasser. There’s also the odd role wolves seem to play in Elven cuture. Finally, there is Solas’ personality. More under the cut.

We see statues of wolves all over the place but generally they are found in front of ancient Elvhen sites. There are statues at the Temple of Mythal, the Temple of Dirthamon and the grove in Crestwood. I also recently found one near Ghilan’nain’s grove. We see a lot of wolf statues in the Dales (we will get to the Emerald Knight companion thing, presently). Given that Fen’Harel was a rebel in ancient times and the equivalent of the Dalish devil in current day Thedas, what gives? Why all the statues? At the very least they should have been destroyed when he rebelled. It doesn’t make sense.

Let’s look at the positioning of the statues. Invariably we see a reclining wolf placed outside what we’ll call the inner sanctuary. That is, they are always at the front before you go into the place you would pray or make your offerings. It’s not a stretch to believe these statues are guarding the temples. We also see wolf statues placed all over the Vir Dirthara. That’s an even weirder place to see them because Solas implies that he isn’t called Fen’Harel until after his rebellion – so why a statue and why one in a guardian position? We do see howling wolves sometimes. They are mostly seen decorating eluvians. Again, they seem to be guarding or protecting something.

Moving along, we learn about the wolf companions the Emerald Knights have. This is also odd. Why wolves? Fen’Harel is theoretically a Trickster God and responsible for locking up the other gods. Usually, when a culture equates a god with negative attributes, people are wary around the animal representing it. Not in this case. These are guardian wolves and there are statues of them all over the Dales. I don’t think all the statues are of wolf companions. Many of the wolf statues are carved into mountainsides and they are gigantic. It would take a long time to create those without magic. And let’s not forget the statues we see underneath waterfalls in Watcher’s Reach and the Exalted Plains. They should be worn away by the water but aren’t. Watcher’s Reach is an old Elven ruin. Magic presumably keeps them from being worn down. Why? Because Fen’Harel is guarding the Dales.

Fen’Harel as guardian can also be seen in Dalish practice. A statue of Fen’Harel is always placed outside the camp to guard against demons. Given that he is thought of as practically a demon himself, this is again, weird behavior.

The stories we hear about him in Masked Empire are also interesting, particularly the Slow Arrow. In it, a village is beset by a monster. The other gods refuse to help so they turn to Fen’Harel. He answers their prayers by showing up. He realizes he can’t defeat the monster. He is then presented with a hard choice. He can attempt to kill it, even though he knows he will probably die and if that happens so will everyone in the village, or he can do something clever and save some of them. So, he launches the slow arrow. The monster comes, kills the adults but dies before it can kill the children. This is in keeping with Solas’ fairly pragmatic personality. It also, it illustrates that Fen’Harel, out of all the gods, even Mythal is always willing to come to the aid of the People.

So, what can we make of this? I believe Fen’Harel was and still is tasked with protecting the People. In a sense he fulfills the position of an Aavar hold beast. How did this happen? I’m not sure. Mythal could have called him out of the Fade with the purpose of protecting the People during the war with the Titans. His spirit could have been bound to a giant wolf. In the Deep Roads there is a codex that indicates depictions of Mythal were found alongside those of Fen’Harel. We know spirits can be reborn. If the giant wolf fell in battle, it might have been reborn and placed in an Elvhen body. Was it a body of it’s own or did it share a body in a similar fashion to Anders and Justice?

Solas as guardian of the People fits in other ways. If he wasn’t one of the Evanuris, he would have been part of the inner circle. He has some very nice castles and talks about missing court intrigue. He had status. If he wasn’t one of the Evanuris, serving as their gurad dog would give him that status

Also, in the library, the spirits replay the final days of the elves when the Veil goes up. They are shocked that Fen’Harel would do something like this. Why? He’s been rebelling for a while so why the surprise? Maybe because he’s supposed to protect The People, not hurt them.

What could have happened? As the Evanuris became more corrupt they began hurting the People. They enslaved them, used them for experiments, hunted them and sacrificed them. If your purpose is to protect the People, what do you as a spirit do?

We see how Cole is diverted from his purpose as a spirit of Compassion into a spirit who performs mercy killings. He’s not the exact opposite of Compassion but he isn’t fulfilling his purpose either. A spirit with a body seems to be more complex. It’s not so binary. If Solas was a bound spirit, the only way to protect his charges might be to do what he did.

Fast-forward to the present day. He wakes up, sees how his people are treated and feels duty-bound to do what he can to save them. In this case by tearing down the Veil. It could be seen as a compulsion.

I’ve probably missed a ton of other evidence but in my opinion, all signs point to Solas at one time being the Protector of the People whose purpose was then twisted. I’d be interested in knowing what other people think. 

#I’ll be writing my own addition at some point #but this is superb #do you think they ever put him in a cone of shame?

[arlathvhenan]

hey so like

hi, you. yeah im talking to you. You like my stuff from time to time and reblog once and a while, and I always recognize you in my notes. we’ve never talked, maybe you dont like to say much or you’re nervous or something. it’s okay, whatever it is. 

I see you. you mean a lot to me. sometimes when I’m having a hard day, I’ll notice your name once again in my notifs and it makes me smile. im not kidding.

I don’t care if you’re a “ghost” follower or you send me asks all the time. i see you and I love you so much, genuinely and truly. you are really important to me. 

thank you. thank you for being there. <3

[arlathvhenan]

Inquisitor Lavellan when Empress Celene asks them if they like Halamshiral and the Winter Palace:

#I love how you’ve desecrated my peoples’ land! #and continue to enslave them lol #this is why Celene deserves the shiv

[arlathvhenan]

I agree but also how dare you compare him to the worst anime character ever to exist

Solas, come back to Konoha

[arlathvhenan]

One of the most petulant takes I’ve seen so far was someone calling the Inquisitor ‘Milquetoast’ because…why exactly? Because you can’t murder hobo your way through the game? Because you need to actually strategize and help people instead of fucking around hitting things?

If your idea of Milquetoast is ‘I can’t play this character as a massive asshole who kills random people for fun’ and faces zero consequences’ then I think the problem might be you. Why are you playing a plot heavy RPG to begin with if you’re only interested in senseless violence? There’s better games for that. Go play one of them.

Also Milquetoast? Just admit you stopped growing as a person in middle school and go read a damn book.

#dragon age inquisition #unpopular opinion #or not idk #I hope to god this isn’t most of you

[arlathvhenan]

I think part of what I hate most about Gaider’s writing is how often he takes the opportunity to brutalize female characters (usually the poor and powerless) for the sake of edgy. It’s almost like being gay doesn’t stop you from being a raging misogynist.

Fuck am I glad he’s gone. It’s one of the few things giving me hope for Dreadwolf.

That and Weekes is demonstrably the superior writer…

#dragon age dreadwolf unpopular opinion

[arlathvhenan]

you can make Anders a blood mage in awakening then in da2 like 30% of his personality is hating blood magic

you can make Hawke a blood mage in da2 then in inquisition like 70% of their personality is hating blood magic

Merrill, on the other hand, is a blood mage no matter what and never expresses any animosity towards the practice, leading me to conclude this is a skill issue on Hawke and Anders' parts. they're just mad they'll never be as good at it as her

[arlathvhenan]

“…Instead of just seeing a pair of pointed ears.”

#my poor sweet idiot #why won’t you let yourself be happy goddamn it?? #gotta drag him kicking and screaming back to the people who can help him

[arlathvhenan]

I don’t understand Solavellans who are like “I love Solas, I can’t wait to beat the shit out of him!”

Maybe it’s the autism but that seems kind of backwards. I don’t generally want to hurt the things I care about, is that a thing people do?

#solas dragon age #solavellan thoughts #probably an unpopular opinion but what the hell

[arlathvhenan]

I feel this but also I just like watching him do stuff

I'm obsessed with Solas in the way a scientist is. I wanna put him in scenarios and see how he reacts. Obsessed with the way he behaves and thinks. I wanna look at him under a microscope. I'm constantly rotating him in my brain. I just wanna see what he's gonna do next.

#I feel

[arlathvhenan]

Just a little angsty Solavellan fluff where Varric attempts to help Theneras move on.

[arlathvhenan]

I don’t really understand why people complain about the Inquisitor being somehow contrived into plot relevance when that’s sort of how all RPG video games work? At least when it comes to ‘PC saves the day’ type games. It’s kind of a given that some contrivance is necessary to get the Player front and center where the action is concerned.

The Warden was conveniently selected by Duncan to serve the order. Then they were conveniently saved by Flemeth, not out of kindness, but because Alistair happened to be relevant to Flemeth’s plans and The Warden happened to be with him when he was rescued.

Then you have Hawke, whom the plot demanded to be in Kirkwall, ergo Hawke conveniently had family there. Hawke also happened to be conveniently saved by Flemeth because—again—she had some scheme-hatchery afoot and for some damn reason happened to know that Hawke would be going to The Free Marches and she needed a gofer. Then you have the further contrivance with Corypheus and Hawke’s bloodline nonsense which I won’t even get into.

I don’t see how the Inquisitor is any more contrived than either of these two, in fact it kind of feels the least contrived given your character was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everything after that falls neatly into place. You were screwing around where you shouldn’t have been, ended up with a power you don’t understand completely by accident, and now you’ve got enemies who either fear that power or want it for themselves. No Flemeth magically appearing at the start of the plot to nudge the protagonist this way or that.

And finally that brings me to Dreadwolf. There’s been a lot of chatter about DA needing to return to the Everyman protagonist, when I don’t see how they ever left? And to be frank, Dreadwolf is the one story where an Everyman protagonist makes the least sense and will therefore be the hardest to pull off. The new PC will basically be usurping the role that—if this were anything but a video game—would logically go to the Inquisitor, or Varric, or Dorian, or literally any of the characters who have a pre-established relationship with Solas. Narratively speaking, that’s what makes the most sense.

But they can’t do that. We need someone new. A nobody. And getting this nobody to be at the center of all this prophetic fate of the world business is going to take some level of contrivance. They will need to come up with a strong enough reason as to why this new character is exceptional enough to make world-changing decisions on behalf of everyone else in existence. We need a reason why Solas—our alleged antagonist—would take a special interest in this person or be otherwise tied to them because if not then what is the point of having them front and center?

Not saying it can’t be done, but they’ll need some really damn good excuses to justify the new perspective. And those excuses will probably be contrived. You don’t have the fate of the world resting on one person without massive contrivances.

#dragon age dreadwolf #dragon age inquisition #dragon age 2 #dragon age origins #dragon age #meta stuff

[arlathvhenan]

Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

(Cole's cryptic comments + The Song)

[arlathvhenan]

People liking your personal OCs is still such a crazy feeling, I've been doing this for years and ppl asking about them still fills my entire heart with warmth and idk how to handle it

You enjoy this fictional guy I made up for fun?? Whose only content is random artwork or writing made by me and a handful of other artists at most? They have no show/book/game with a large fandom, it's just one person with an art blog?? I love u

#I’m always self conscious about my OCs #especially for like a pre-established property #it’s why I usually don’t name my Lavellan in my fics #but it’s so heartwarming when people say they like her

[arlathvhenan]

To be fair, he isn’t the mean girl. He’s the Poor Mislead Sad Boy

When stressed, overwhelmed or in the pits of helplesness, I listen to the podcast between Patrick Weekes and VGS about Solas 🤡 it always makes things better. The loving way Patrick talks about Solas. The funny dialogue. The assurance that there are good things ahead.