Ash
: So Solas is the Dread Wolf. Was Solas at one time an elf who was at one time possessed by the… not possessed but…
does an old god or the Dread Wolf inhabit the body of an elf? Or has that been him all along?
Weekes: Ohh Ash! It’s tough because I keep trying to think ‘okay can I answer that?’ But yeah there are different interpretations.
A: Okay that’s a good enough answer. I don’t want to get you in trouble! Because it was revealed that Mythal was Flemeth and if you choose to drink from the well you learn a little more about Flemeth’s origin I believe than if you choose to not drink from the well. So I drank from the well a second time… and I learned that Mythal inhabited the body of a woman who was kind of crying out in anguish and was begging for the help of the gods and Mythal came to her and possessed her and she became essentially Flemeth. Am I correct in that?
Weekes: Yeah that Flemeth was a person and that the spirit of Mythal came into her. She says that pretty clearly. I’m not giving anything away there.
A: And the scene between Flemeth and Solas was, to me, very jarring… as it was for most players…. I think you probably saw the eruption on the internet of like “WTF” like…. What just happened… there’s a whole lot of that. First of all I love the character of Solas I thought you did a brilliant job with him, he was very very interesting and fascinating. I found that his love of the fade, especially his loyalty quest where he is going after the mages for you know… entrapping demons I thought was a brilliant twist on you know.. what’s right and what’s wrong… and actually had me question well… there ARE two sides to every story. So where did you kind of come up with some of his themes and ideas and when was the idea introduced to have him sort of be…. I’ll just say it, he’s sort of the ‘Big Bad’?
Weekes: He atleast has the possibility of having… [laugh]… yes, uh, given that Flemeth explicitly says... “Why did you let Corypheus get your orb?” That implies he had something to do with it.
A: Yeah, there’s no backing out of that one. It’s like “I handed you the gun that caused the war”.
Weekes: So yeah, actually, there is an amazing level of difficulty and opportunity in writing a character who you know the entire time has a giant side to that character that we are never going to show you… until the stinger. The post-credits scene. And Dave and I worked together on him pretty heavily because… yes… he is so involved in a critical part of the game and the main plot. For me…. Um… what’s the right way to put this… I’m really bad at writing bad guys. Like if you give me “Hey, write a villain” I will turn in a serviceable villain and he will probably say snarky things at you. Like I was the main writer on ‘Here Lies the Abyss’, so if you remember when the demon speaking with Corypheus’ voice… the nightmare… is taunting you and all your followers and Hawke and whichever one of your warden allies is with you… that’s me writing a villain.
Kate: Oh that was so cruel Patrick! The things that nightmare said to Hawke!
Weekes: It said mean, hurtful things. That’s me writing a villain. That’s about the best I got. That’s all I can give you. But if you tell me “write someone who is morally conflicted, someone who is doing something awful for what he thinks is a fully moral reason… that’s where I can really dig my teeth into it. I kind of feel the same way about Mordin from Mass Effect.
K: Yeah, there’s a lot of parallels there I hadn’t considered.
Weekes: It would have been very easy to just write Mordin as a mad scientist. Again, in much the same way it would have been easy to write Iron Bull as a brainless thug. But it would have been less interesting, and I don’t feel like I would have been able to talk… to really lay it on the line and be able to talk anyone into believing that the genophage was necessary if I had Mordin as just ‘mad scientist guy’. And in the same way, Solas, as we have shown in game if you’ve put things together, has done some unfortunate things.
A: Playing through the second time and watching his interactions with the other characters, he’s not this soulless *******… ha soulless, Solas, hah I didn’t mean to do that… (I know so bad I’m sorry) … he truly does have feelings for the other companions. You hear his banter with Cole, you hear his banter with the other characters and you’re like, okay he cares about them. He might be an old god or not who he claims to be, but he’s sort of experiencing the world in a new light and kind of perhaps learning a little bit about humanity on this new adventure. Sort of like a teenager growing up and becoming a teenager for the first time. I was just playing through for the second time and noticing how he was interacting with everyone and it was really you know, kind of telling.
Weekes: Well yeah, he doesn’t kick puppies. He very rarely in fact will even suggests something morally questionable. He might see… he might approve of it, but what he really approves of is intelligence and thoughtfulness. Um… even if that intelligence or thoughtfulness is coupled with something that is ruthless or something that is um… you know something that is not thought of as ‘the nice guy’ route, it’s just ‘okay nope you’ve thought this through, the most important thing to do right now is to eliminate these bad guys’. Okay good we’re going to eliminate them. That’s the kind of thing he will approve of. But yeah he is always the person who is going to look for more thoughtful solutions. He is always someone who… if you look at his banters… since I can’t really give any hard answers… if you want to understand Solas, listen to the things that he brings up on his own.
K: Yeah the things he talks about with the Iron Bull are very interesting. He is extremely resistant to the Qun and the ideas in the Qun, and I think that told me a lot about his character.
Weekes: He is one of the strongest believers in freedom of personal thought. And yeah the Qun is I think one the things that gets him angriest in the game. If you look at the few places he gets really, really angry in the game, it’s when talking to Iron Bull, especially if you sacrifice the chargers. If you sacrifice the chargers, Solas and Bull have one last banter, and Solas cuts him to the bone. Then it’s watching the idiot mages bind his buddy and turn his buddy into a demon.
K: That was great. It really took me back because he is so stoic for the most part and then there is just this explosion of emotion like he hit you with whiplash. Like oh my god Solas!
A: Yeah he comes out blazing and you’re like, oh man he is actually serious about this!
Weekes: The quiet guy is losing his temper!
K: He gets mad about the wardens too.
Weekes: That’s the other thing he gets very very angry about, it’s he does not like what the wardens are doing. He does not like their plan. And he thinks their plan is bad. It is a pretty bad plan let’s be honest.
A: It is a pretty bad plan let’s be honest.
K: A super bad plan.
A: A really bad plan. Wasn’t that the architects plan, If I remember correctly? Or similar to it?
Weekes: Um… okay yes. In many ways, yes. It was kill them before they woke up.
A: Yeah. I was hoping he’d pop up again if you let him live. Maybe in the future we’ll see him. ‘Cause he was really interesting too. And I really loved The Calling book I thought it was a tonne of fun.
Weekes: Yeah it is possible we will see him in the future. Depends where the franchise takes us.
K: Patrick can I ask you about the Solas romance?
Weekes: Suuuure?
K: (Laugh) ‘Cause that was not originally a planned romance right? Was that a late addition?
Weekes: Uh yeah that was a later addition.
K: What made you guys decide to do that?
Weekes: (pause) ….well okay. So I feel like the honest answer would just make people grumpy with me but…
K: Oh okay. I’m sorry I asked.
Weekes: In a way it was to make it… sadder.
K: Oh god.
Weekes: Hi Solasmancers… I’m so sorry guys…. But yeah. If you want to see the utter sadness of Solas it’s the playthrough in which you are romancing him. Because you get to see that he does care about you. You know, it is not… it’s obvious I hope, that his feelings for you are not fake and he cares about you deeply and…. He is one step from telling you the truth about himself. And the actor, oh man, whose name I always get backwards and I sound like such a tool every time I do, Gareth David-Lloyd or Gareth Lloyd-David?
A: I don’t remember sorry.
Weekes: Oh god his voice is just amazing. And he did a fantastic job on the delivery and if you go with um… if you do his romance there is one key moment where he says… “I’ve been thinking and um… you’re a beautiful person… so intelligent and thoughtful… I’ve been trying to show how much I care about you… and the way to do that is to show that you deserve the truth”. And he just breaks a tiny bit on that line.
K: I did that one last night. Ugh.
Weekes: Because that’s the bit where he almost tells you… the truth. And then he twists it into telling you about your Valleslin instead.
K: Yeah. I was gutted, I was like oh, he’s finally going to tell me the truth, and then he was telling me some bullshit about the Valleslin and I was like DAMMIT SOLAS.
A: We know the truth now, buddy.
Weekes: He chickens out on it. Because in that moment, what I wrote in the VO comments was… you know, what came across so fantastically was that he is about to tell you and then pulls back at the last minute, tells you about the Valleslin and then again, goes in on the kiss and then is so ready to just lose himself and forget about the past…. and then he has to push back. And Jonathan the cinematic designer just sold it without you know, without a word of dialogue in that part… the part where he steps back and his face changes because he knows… he has to break it off right there or he’s going to have betrayed himself. I just…. I love that. And it is… so sad. And it has broken the hearts of many players. And it broke my heart when I wrote it.
No recovery needed ... yet... he's still snogging me quite well.
I´m totally headcanoning him being a really good dancer with the entire court going all "Ohh" when he and Lavellan dance 
Retour en haut
I don't like ascribing motivations to the writers or assuming bad things about their intentions, but somewhere along the line, the ball totally got dropped.
