I'm still not too sure why you theorise that Solas/Fen'Harel is also the Twins. I remember you bringing this up a lot in the past. Is there a chance you could explain it to me in a way that assumes I am really, really stupid?
This post outlines the basic idea, but admittedly kind of poorly. TwT The whole thing is built from a multitude of teeny, tiny details and is almost entirely circumstantial, but it has a lot of explanatory power: much of the timeline (and several otherwise difficult-to-explain pieces of lore like the "Tevinter" mosaics) can be tamed into making sense if we use it as a base assumption.
Quick attempt at a 1000-foot overview:
As an entity, Solas embodies balance in a literal sense: he is composed of two fragments of the eternal war that underlies the DA universe: Order and Chaos. Ancient Elvhen mosaics imply that the two halves may have originally shared a single physical body, which makes a certain amount of sense given that Dirthamen and Falon'Din seem to map to the left and right forebrain of a single sentient being. I believe they were, originally, intended to act as one.
~I'm going to seriously simplify functional lateralization here - cog sci people look awaaaay~
Dirthamen (who is dominant in the Solas we know) represents the left brain, where analytic processing takes place. Math, science, logic- these areas are where the left brain shines. More importantly, when it comes to morality, this side of the brain takes a deliberative, calculative view: the greatest good for the greatest number. The right side of the brain, Falon'din, processes social cues a bit differently. The left brain is empathetic- it understands emotional processing in others, and has an abstract view of morality. This is the side that would have pushed the combined self to take action when the Pantheon's rule over the People became an iron fist, and it was the side that was consigned eternally to the Fade when the rebellion failed. (Due to his domain and theoretical ability to use the Fade as a spiritual path between bodies like eluvians provide paths between places, Falon'din couldn't be punished with exile in abyssal form the way Dirthamen could be. Instead, he was imprisoned by Mythal and relegated permanently to the fade.)
When Dirthamen was released from the Void as Fen'Harel, he was still connected to Falon'Din through the fade (aka, on a subconscious level) and thus we find F'H still represented in statuary as two halves: the loyal Hound (Order) and the howling Dread Wolf (Chaos). The Solas we know today is much the same. He is governed primarily by his right brain: the monosemantic, predeterministic, analytic self. That's not to say he's totally without connection to Falon'Din, however. Unless he's been painting in his sleep, the fact that Solas can express himself through art is a significant hint that he's not as completely divorced from his left brain as it might seem at first glance.
Still, a lot of the problematic character traits we see in Solas are directly related to "Dirthamen's" dominance. As I mentioned earlier, the left brain is monosemantic and predeterministic, which is just a complicated way of saying that once it believes it knows what a thing is, that is literally all that it can be. Because the left brain handles the heavy lifting of analytic processing, it tends to cut corners where it can in terms of taking in new data from the outside world. Instead it creates its own internal idea of how the world works, and references that instead. In many ways, the left brain is almost entirely disengaged from the reality of the world around it.
This is (kind of brilliantly) referenced in Solas' rant against an Assquisitor. Lines like "how entirely expected" are the essence of the predeterministic left brain. This tendency even surfaces with a friendly Inquisitor, since the Inquisitor's deviation from expectation comes as such a surprise. (As we know, it takes him forever to notice, and even then he treats the Inquisitor as a strange oddity- a unique blip in his conception of how the world works, rather than allowing external data to change his internal perspective.)
This is also apparent in the way Solas views other members of the Inquisition. Cassandra is often "Seeker"- her role literally stands in for who she is in his mind: his conception of her place in the universe. Verric is often simply "Child of the Stone". On a more romantic note, the same holds for "Vehnan". More obviously, this applies to his perspective during Cole's quest to become human- a position some felt to be out of character, but completely in line with the monosemantic nature of the left brain.
"This is not some fanciful story, Child of the Stone. We cannot change our nature by wishing."
To Solas, Cole simply is what he is -a Spirit of Compassion- and that is all that he can and should be. The thought that he could choose to be otherwise, and take action to literally make it so, is almost impossible for him to admit.
Bonus: as we Solavellans can attest, the left neocortex also has a prominent role in romantic love: it makes the left ACC and AI light up like a Christmas tree. What it can't do very well is judge how the other person is feeling, sense pain in others, or react properly in an emotional context. ...so, yeah. Sounds familiar.
Holy HELL, I am way off topic. @w@ Sorry about that. The basic in-game evidence is all in the other thread.
Retour en haut
I will just read and try to wrap my brain around it instead.
Nice final line too.
(Cole, Solas, and Lavellan.)
