I have been silently lurking in this thread for the past week since finishing my first playthrough of the game. Finally made my way through many of the posts, and I'm really pleased to have found so many thoughtful ideas and theories about Solas (as well as some hilarious and strange distractions! Ha!). So, I hought I would finally poke my head in and say hi. I romanced Solas on my first inquisitor, and let's just say as my first Bioware romance option, um, whoa. Did I just get lucky and pick the best (or perhaps worst, depending on your perspective) one...? Or are they all this engrossing and heartwrenching!? Hahaha. Something tells me no.
I went into this game having not played any of the previous Dragon Age games, and ended up playing quite slowly, reading all codex entries, and looking stuff up on the wikis as I went, because there is a LOT of lore, far more than I could have expected, and a lot that you could easily miss if you just graze the surface of it while playing through. So, I tried to be thorough and pick up as much info as possible.
Based on what I've learned, and understanding that there are likely still several gaps in my knowledge of the history and religions of Thedas, here's what I think and where I hope the writers will go with Solas and Lavellan.
This is not so much theory-driven speculation as character-driven speculation. Here goes.
I think the third act of Inquisition started pushing toward an important future choice for Solas. His tragic flaw is that he takes 100% personal responsibility to fix his own mistakes, and remains too guarded to let anyone in enough to fully trust with the truth of his situation. He holds his cards very, very close. He doesn't know how to let himself trust other people enough to help him make important decisions, no doubt because he has seen so many people (/"gods") make terrible, power-hungry choices that have had awful and far-reaching consequences. More than anyone in the Inquisition, Solas knows that big decisions are not to be made lightly.
Solas is also profoundly uncomfortable with being emotionally vulnerable. He is (and I don't mean this as a slight--in fact I think I also am this) remedially introverted. His inability to open up is what holds him back, what trips him up. Lavellan starts to crack the shell, but Solas clams up and is too shy to let her all the way in. Asking someone else for help, to Solas, is an act of dumping his problems, his baggage, on someone else. Since he cares deeply for Lavellan, he doesn't want to burden her with his problems, or as he puts it, 'distract you from your duties'. Solving his problems by himself is his incredibly ineffective way of demonstrating that he cares. His actions are one part pride, one part selflessness. Solas values the individual, and a person's ability to be independent, because this is what he values in himself.
I would like to see Solas grow one step further... His curse for Vivienne, "may you learn", is advice he himself should heed. While we can only speculate exactly what Solas wanted the orb for, what the Elven artifacts were for, and what the Mythal absorption was for, we can infer Solas has something big planned involving the Fade. Because Lavellan still bears the mark, the two of them are still bound. As long as Lavellan possesses the mark she potentially has a unique ability connecting her to the Fade in a way that could either greatly aid or greatly hinder Solas' future plans. I think they will for sure meet again.
If Solas is forced to choose between what he deems to be the greater good (whatever his mysterious plan is), and saving one person, like Lavellan, I think the more interesting choice from a pure character development standpoint would be for Solas to choose Lavellan. If there is one person he couldn't bear to lose, it's her. We've seen Fen'Harel fall from grace before, and he has clearly suffered the consequences of the choice to 'go it alone' before. Solas has paid for his mistakes already. To see him really grow as a character, we need to see him driven to a point where he chooses what he wants, not what he believes he has to do. For Solas, the ends always justify the means. He's willing to make sacrifices. If we believe that the romance was absolutely genuine on his part, then the only sacrifice he might not be willing to make would involve Lavellan. The very reason he pulls away from her is because he loves her so much it scares him.
The Inquisitor made him doubt himself, and I'd like to see him eventually forced to act on that doubt, to learn what it is to not have to win.
For all his wisdom, Solas' blindspot is himself. He understands so little of what his own personal needs are, because he chooses to ignore them in favor of immersing himself in solving the problems of the world. He is intelligent enough and thoughtful enough to find enough external fascinations that he can distract himself from facing his own squishy emotions. Solas being forced to choose between saving Lavellan and accomplishing his ultimate goal is what I'd most like to see in DLC/future games. Even, and perhaps especially, if choosing Lavellan spells out dire consequences for him, I want to see these two get a chance to change together, if only for a moment. I don't foresee a happy ending, but I think Solas embracing the squishy side and putting the woman he loves ahead of any other agenda is about as positive a move as we can hope for, and that may be asking for a lot because that is the very thing that would be hardest for Solas to do...
While Solas' motivations still aren't completely understood, I still felt like I got what made him tick. Could be wrong in my speculations, and I guess only time will tell, but I certainly have fun puzzling about Solas. Kudos to Patrick Weekes 
What a complex and compelling character.
Also those thighs. Mmm.
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The game itself up to the point where you can save him doesn't really give you any reason to do so other than the stories about how he was a hero at one time. Solas got a lot more characterization within this game than Loghain did in Origins (most of his deeper stuff in Origins you couldn't get until after recruiting him), so I hope Solas gets treated just as well as Loghain did in regards to gameplay choices for what ultimately happens to him. I actually like that it was PW who pushed for the romance because it was something he wanted to do.That fact makes me happy. That he felt it was important enough to add makes me feel that he is very invested in Solas as a character and wants people to get to know him and understand him as much as possible.
