the thing with Solas is that he's proud, and wise, and clever, and cunning, and regretful, and guilty, and honest when it'd be so much easier to lie, but while canon tells (and shows) us all of that, it doesn't tell us that the other deep-seated emotion that drives him is shame.
shame about what he did, shame about what he's going to do; shame about what he was, shame about what he is; shame about killing his friend; shame about viewing the people of the current Age as shadows; shame about not knowing better; shame about not wanting to know better; shame about a befriended/romanced Inquisitor, shame about the friends he made; shame about hiding in plain sight, shame about not telling the truth; shame about making the same mistake twice, knowing how it'll turn out; shame about his outbursts, shame about not being good enough; shame about feeling attached to the current Thedas, shame about not feeling attached enough to stop; shame about not having anything to be proud of anymore.
I was recently struggling with a scene that didn't go the way I thought it would, until I realized that neither pride nor guilt nor regret nor wariness was the the real motivation; they were just the result, the display, the cover: the real motivation was the shame.
and then everything kind of clicked into place, precisely because pride is such a focal point of Solas' character - if shame is a deep-seated emotion, it contradicts his pride, his wisdom, his intellect; if shame is a deep-seated emotion, it fuels his regret, his guilt, his determination; if shame is a deep-seated emotion, it's the one thing he's actually managed to conceal. (then again, I wonder if he's even aware that what he's feeling is shame.)
and, as I kept thinking about it, it kept making sense: to be ashamed is a grave sentence for someone like Solas, who's entire character revolves around his pride and his wisdom and his regret. he regrets enough of his mistakes to be disappointed, unsatisfied with himself, to be uncomfortable with what he's done; he's wise enough to know that he has no logical reason to feel ashamed for half of these things and yet even more reasons to feel ashamed for the other half; he's proud enough to loathe admitting to this shame. he gets wary if you poke at him, defensive if you manage to get to close to this sore spot, upset if you keep at it. his pride won't allow him to admit to his shame, and his wisdom won't allow him to not admit to it, and his shame won't allow him to speak about it, and that keeps him stuck in this vicious cycle.
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st. louis day 6 - canon divergence (more like crack au but whatever)
iwtv created by shonda rhimes, inspired by jokes / conversations with some very sick individuals.
racism and homophobia no longer exist because lincoln was never assassinated and also he came out as gay or something (shonda's rules). the du lac family are old money southern aristocracy who have fallen from the social heights of the previous generation. after his sister's wedding to a man of middling wealth and standing, louis is sent on a grand tour of europe in order to attract a wealthy husband with a title so the family might regain their status. on his stop in paris, he meets the mysterious marquis de lioncourt with a vast fortune of questionable origin but is also romantically pursued by avant-garde theatre director armand. who will louis marry???
also even though racism/homophobia ended, royalty and nobility still exist don't ask why.
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Second part of that request- Hugo and Varian as Harley Quinn and Joker!
(Put the ref under the cut)
I was looking for references and stumbled onto this :
And I LOVE annoyed Varian and Hugo being a bother so this was too perfect.
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