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[Cee]

Such a deliciously dark character... #.#

 

But I have to wonder, still, how that decision was made. I mean, the best way to 'hide in plain sight' is to have Solas act completely normal in all ways, only slipping up here and there just enough to let us know that there's more to him than meets the eye. And I have to wonder about that comment being able to be 'interpreted either way' just in case some people were uncomfortable... it seems strange to me in a game where any and all successful romances with other characters does culminate in some sort of intimate scene, why stop with just one? Or why leave just one out? Isn't that a little... obvious? Why be concerned with the delicate feelings of one particular LI fan group when all the rest (heck, all the rest in all three installments of DA) get it whether they like it or not? (Or are they just tiptoeing on eggshells around us because they know they've tormented us so much already... in which case I'd still say why choose omission rather than inclusion, when some - like me - were really, really desperate to get even a single line more out of him? We're meant to believe their relationship is deep and loving, but so much of that is behind the scenes.)

 

The Josephine romance does not have a sex scene either. They determine these things through a mix of what's right for the character, voice actors, and story, etc.

 

As for the open to interpretation bit, I believe it may have been unintentional in the main game, but a small, but notable group of fans responded positively, and asexuals and people who don't like/want/need actual sex scenes/like having the option to headcanon a character as asexual, embraced both of those romances. So the line in Trespasser was also able to be interpreted to fit either headcanon.

 

So, while the Solas romance gets seemingly much more attention for it, romantic epic adorableness with Josie is also there, and honestly, there's more suggestive stuff in Solas' dialogue than Josie's.

 

Categorizing people's preferences like that as "delicate" comes off as a little rude, IMO, because to some fans, it's a matter of representation and having even the possibility of an option that they can relate to. That's like saying people are delicate for wanting to play as a woman or for wanting LGBT romance options.

 

I felt like the Solas romance needed more unique dialogue/scenes, but the quality on the one we did get was wonderful and produced with such care.

 

The team really came through in Trespasser too.

[dawnstone]

*snip*

 

 If we focus on the fact that not everyone agrees, well - not everyone likes any of the other romances, either. Come on! Bull betrays you hideously, I won't even mention Blackwall and I could go on. Is it because Solas is an antagonist? To me, that's like a freaking dream come true. Which is why I love Solas way more than is healthy.

 

 

Well, there is the fact that you can more or less punish Blackwall (leave him to hang) and Iron Bull (you have to kill him) in some manner (if you're the vindictive type), for their various betrayals. With Solas, you are simply forced to watch him walk away, helplessly.

[Cee]

Plot armor could reasonably infuriate a few folks, yep.

[Gwyvian]

The Josephine romance does not have a sex scene either. They determine these things through a mix of what's right for the character, voice actors, and story, etc.

 

As for the open to interpretation bit, I believe it may have been unintentional in the main game, but a small, but notable group of fans responded positively, and asexuals and people who don't like/want/need actual sex scenes/like having the option to headcanon a character as asexual, embraced both of those romances. So the line in Trespasser was also able to be interpreted to fit either headcanon.

 

So, while the Solas romance gets seemingly much more attention for it, romantic epic adorableness with Josie is also there, and honestly, there's more suggestive stuff in Solas' dialogue than Josie's.

 

Categorizing people's preferences like that as "delicate" comes off as a little rude, IMO, because to some fans, it's a matter of representation and having even the possibility of an option that they can relate to. That's like saying people are delicate for wanting to play as a woman or for wanting LGBT romance options.

 

True, that, I forgot about Josie's romance.

 

On a more objective level, I applaud this choice exactly because it can appeal to a wider range of fans, I applaud the fact that it's an LI option that isn't designed to 'achieve the cutscene' as it were. The subjective Solasmancer in me, however, is still grievously (shamefacedly) disappointed - maybe with any other romance I would have been fine with this (and that brings me back to one of my original questions: why stop at just one? Or two.) What I mean is... this is all nice and everything, but what if we had a choice to have sex scenes at all, in general? With all LI's? Because this basically exchanged one set of preferences for another and while I absolutely think that someone who is not interested in such things shouldn't have to experience it if they don't want to, that doesn't make it a good solution to just cut it out entirely.

 

As to delicate - I'm sorry if it came off that way. I was referencing how raw the Solas romance experience makes us, since it was designed as one of the most soul crushing of the lot, considering the revelations attached to Solas' character, i.e. you become emotionally fragile - I wasn't talking about preferences at all but emotional reactions, and the fact that all romances potentially provoke strong emotions, regardless of who you choose.

[Gwyvian]

Well, there is the fact that you can more or less punish Blackwall (leave him to hang) and Iron Bull (you have to kill him) in some manner (if you're the vindictive type), for their various betrayals. With Solas, you are simply forced to watch him walk away, helplessly.

 

True. But I could still argue that it's part of your experience of choice. Generally games tiptoe around writer-driven plot solutions - which is fine, I mean, you play games to have a certain degree of control over things - but I enjoy exactly those types of games that have a realistic amount of lack of control, like these betrayals, and in Solas' case, I think it's not a terrible thing that you are completely helpless; most of the rest of your character's existence is a huge success in many ways, there's room for some imperfection (not to say that this is the only one, far from it). Solas as a character engages and motivates partly because he's powerful and has a 'save the world' evil plot, if you can even call it that, yet you can palpably feel that you almost can sway him, you have influence, you just need a little more time, you need to literally catch him before he slips away again, but you don't succeed. You only see a shadow of a hope that you might succeed at some point. Well, they could still have given you vindictive options - he professes his deep love for you, you could twist a knife in his heart in response, which for a character like him would be far more poignant than the physical punishment you might (try to) bestow.

 

Anyway, I'm tired so I'm pretty sure what I'm saying is coming out as garbled and offensive in ways I really don't mean, sorry everyone if that is the case. *hands out blanket and kitten peace offerings* I can barely see my screen and I really have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm just having serious Solas withdrawal symptoms.

 

Plot armor could reasonably infuriate a few folks, yep.

 

Hahaha, plot armor. Yes. I like that expression to an unreasonable degree.

[Sable Rhapsody]

Plot armor doesn't bother me, and neither do plot rails for that matter, as long as they make sense, and IMO Solas's do.  I don't care how much of a genius special snowflake you headcanon quizzy to be, no reasonable person would ever have suspected all the crap he's up to while he's with the Inquisition.  And by the time you do get the truth, you're dying from the Anchor and he's extremely powerful.  I'm ok with quizzy being helpless in that situation.

 

In contrast, DA2's Anders plot armor drove me nuts.  Because there is no reason for it, other than "THE PLOT DICTATES."  Fine, let the plot dictate, but at least try to explain it away.  Anders all but tells you he's up to no good.  But because THE PLOT DICTATES, the authority figures who are happy to make mages Tranquil for sneezing wrong don't follow up when the freaking Champion of Kirkwall tells them Anders is up to something?  You can't even just murder-knife him yourself and have it done with. And I say this as someone who sided with Anders in my canon run 

 

Something is very wrong when you can sell Fenris back into slavery for no good reason, and can't arrest Anders for legitimate reasons 

[MayriyaNoori]

Hey, thread, check this out.

 

http://eveningalchemist.tumblr.com/

This made my morning.

[FernRain]

 

I wonder what Solas thinks if he hears that..

[Tess]

 

I wonder what Solas thinks if he hears that..

He graciously ignores it. Had him there.

[MayriyaNoori]

 

I wonder what Solas thinks if he hears that..

Solas would ask for the person to define 'lighting the world on fire.'

 

Then make a casual comment about, "Fire is a mere side effect, not the means by which it is done."

 

And everyone around would get shifty eyes, followed by him saying "The Veil is awkward here, can you feel it?"

[CapricornSun]

Art post.

 

Pulchra Tenebris part 22.

Spoiler

Source: http://thefateshaper...olaslavellan-by

 

 

Sketch of Lavellan (in a lovely elven dress) with Solas in wolf form.

Spoiler

Source: http://flowersofsaku...-bed-now-anyway

 

 

Before male Lavellan saw Dorian, he was really into Solas.

Spoiler

Source: http://amatus-vhenan...ly-into-the-egg

 

 

Trespasser: Solas WIP.

Spoiler

Source: http://anellatulip.t...-have-a-problem

 

 

Dread Wolf guide you.

Spoiler

Source: http://shyyboyy-art....wolf-guides-you

 

[Illyria]

On this note, I have to wonder: in Trespasser, Solas pretty much outright indicated that Lavellan and he had lain together. Why is it really that he is the only LI who didn't get a cutscene for it? Is it really just because he was a last minute LI option?

 

I know this subject has been gnawed to the bone, but now that Trespasser is out (where they clearly had more time and intention to put his romance in the forefront, to the point where I'm having trouble envisioning how I'm going to play through it not as a Solasmancer), I have to wonder about it again. Originally we were speculating that it was perhaps a design choice or that he is just so damn special (or I privately think because they really, really want to torment Solasmancers as much as is humanly possible for... 'artistic reasons'), but now I'm not so certain. And I feel just a little bit short-changed that I didn't get to glut myself on a more intimate cutscene. IF it was deliberate, I respect the fact (as we discussed way back when) that not every romance has to have a more explicit cutscene, because that highlights that this is not the point. Yet, when I get down to it, I just want more. Because Solas has an annoying tendency to run away. x_x I mean, it seems needlessly cruel to me that the one LI who leaves us heartbroken and wanting way more is the one who gives the least amount of content. (But the ones he does give...! *miserable swoon*)

 

It's to respect the choices of those who may have headcanoned their Inquisitor as asexual, or had been uncomfortable with the idea of sex in the relationship given how much Solas was holding back.

[Illyria]

Plot armor doesn't bother me, and neither do plot rails for that matter, as long as they make sense, and IMO Solas's do.  I don't care how much of a genius special snowflake you headcanon quizzy to be, no reasonable person would ever have suspected all the crap he's up to while he's with the Inquisition.  And by the time you do get the truth, you're dying from the Anchor and he's extremely powerful.  I'm ok with quizzy being helpless in that situation.

 

In contrast, DA2's Anders plot armor drove me nuts.  Because there is no reason for it, other than "THE PLOT DICTATES."  Fine, let the plot dictate, but at least try to explain it away.  Anders all but tells you he's up to no good.  But because THE PLOT DICTATES, the authority figures who are happy to make mages Tranquil for sneezing wrong don't follow up when the freaking Champion of Kirkwall tells them Anders is up to something?  You can't even just murder-knife him yourself and have it done with. And I say this as someone who sided with Anders in my canon run 

 

Something is very wrong when you can sell Fenris back into slavery for no good reason, and can't arrest Anders for legitimate reasons 

 

The Anders thing makes no sense because you can work out he's up to something hella suspicious and even speak to Elthenia and Cullen about it and the plot still goes ahead.  You can also give them proof about the Tranquil solution and evidence that the Templars are abusing their power in Act II and nothing is done about that, either. The mage/Templar conflict in Kirkwall was always going to start but it would've been far more interesting to have a number of reasons for why it started rather than always being Anders.

[Elessara]

 

I wonder what Solas thinks if he hears that..

 

I don't know that he thinks much about it at all.  He's not trying to avenge a wrong, he's trying to right a wrong that he committed himself.

 

Mythal/Flemeth want to avenge a wrong and they want their vengeance to shake the heavens.

 

Edit to add:  And Solas is trying to right this wrong in a really bad way.  I'm also not sure how much of a wrong it was if he really had no better alternative than putting up the Veil.  However, he certainly perceives he did a bad thing and now has to correct it.  He really needs to learn that two wrongs don't make a right and he shouldn't take Gary Larson comics at face value.

[Flemmy]

I'm waiting for the offical one, though.

I know, I am just kidding. But perhaps it would be cheaper to make your own though.

[Ivy Lavellan]

I can't stop thinking about what Solas was like when he was younger, before he created the Veil. One popular theory seems to be he was a slave, but personally, I don't see him as one. I see someone free-spirited (as a future rebellion leader, how could he not be?), carefree, arrogant and cocky ("an elf who was certain he knew everything", as he himself put it in his banter, plus, 'Solas' does mean 'pride', after all). Someone who loved risk, politics, court intrigue, balls, dancing - just look at him in Halamshiral, he is positively excited to be there Quite a lady's man too (his confidence with a romanced Lavellan is telling), and an excellent lover - Andruil could have anyone, I'd imagine, her being a goddess and all, yet she wanted him Brilliant (creating the Veil, on his own at that, was no small feat! Also, mad chess skillz), sharp, delightfully sarcastic ("Kill the king's other daughter"? Say what you will, this is ingenious )

I would've loved to meet that Solas. And seeing how strikingly different he is now... it's just a whole new level of heart-breaking for me.

[Qun00]

Which, I assume, is also why he likely avoids lying.

That's an odd thing to say.

[Elessara]

That's an odd thing to say.

 

He often (not always) avoids direct lying.  He deflects and omits usually.  A lot of the things he says he saw in the Fade?  He probably did he just neglects to say he actually experienced them first.  His name actually IS Solas and it's not like anyone came out and asked him if he was Fen'Harel so he never lied and said he wasn't.  Midnight tea isn't saying Solas isn't deceptive, he just avoids the bald faced lies ... usually.

[FernRain]

@Mayriya:

 

Haha, the veil is awkward here.. Thank you for the laugh .

[kitcat1228]

He often (not always) avoids direct lying.  He deflects and omits usually.  A lot of the things he says he saw in the Fade?  He probably did he just neglects to say he actually experienced them first.  His name actually IS Solas and it's not like anyone came out and asked him if he was Fen'Harel so he never lied and said he wasn't.  Midnight tea isn't saying Solas isn't deceptive, he just avoids the bald faced lies ... usually.

Well if before the veil the fade and the waking world were combined, then technically he did see it in the fade. What are the times he bald faced lies?

[MayriyaNoori]

@Mayriya:

 

Haha, the veil is awkward here.. Thank you for the laugh .

I do what I can for the People.

 

I love the idea of awkward Solas moments.

 

I mean, it really is just the thought of what must go through his brain sometimes when he slips up or something.

 

Lavellan: So, how old did you say you were?

Solas: Well.....*****, what is a normal age these days? What would be acceptable to hear? I know I look about 35, but will they believe that? And I kind of like this gremlin.....so what does SHE find acceptable.......crap, I'm stalling, I'll smile. *smile* There, she blushed......ugh* I don't feel comfortable discussing it.

Lavellan: Oh, I'm sorry. That's fine. I mean, I'm not really bothered by age anyway.

Solas:

[Qun00]

@Mayriya:

Haha, the veil is awkward here.. Thank you for the laugh .

Sera would get a kick out of that one.

Well if before the veil the fade and the waking world were combined, then technically he did see it in the fade. What are the times he bald faced lies?

I think the closest thing is his banter with Cassandra, when she asks how Solas ended up at the Conclave.

That, and the claim that he'd lived as a wandering apostate most of his life while it was just for one year.

[Elessara]

Well if before the veil the fade and the waking world were combined, then technically he did see it in the fade. What are the times he bald faced lies?

 

I'm thinking, "growing up in a small village to the north", whilst vague is still probably far enough from the truth that you could call it a lie.  Although as I type this I realise I think it's a lie because I subscribe to the theory that Solas was a spirit before.  So I may be completely wrong about that.  And Solas may also be talking in metaphors.  Who knows hehe.

[dawnstone]

Sera would get a kick out of that one.


I think the closest thing is his banter with Cassandra, when she asks how Solas ended up at the Conclave.

That, and the claim that he'd lived as a wandering apostate most of his life while it was just for one year.

Actually, the second one may be true as one of the codex entries in Trespasser says:

 

The pages of this book-memory?-warn of a terrible danger, a wolf with slavering black jaws and pits for eyes. The Evanuris-the elven gods-stand in a ring around it, as if preventing it from attacking.

"Beware the forms of Fen'Harel! The Dread Wolf comes in humble guises, a wanderer who knows much of the People and their spirits. He will offer advice that seems fair, but turns slowly to poison. Remember the price of treason, and keep in your heart the mercy of your gods."

 

So the Evanuris were well aware that he would go around looking like a shabby hobo to recruit people away from them.

[kitcat1228]

I'm thinking, "growing up in a small village to the north", whilst vague is still probably far enough from the truth that you could call it a lie.  Although as I type this I realise I think it's a lie because I subscribe to the theory that Solas was a spirit before.  So I may be completely wrong about that.  And Solas may also be talking in metaphors.  Who knows hehe.

Does he actually say growing up or just something about being a young man/mage in a small village to the north? I vaguely remember listening to that again and thinking that the theory still worked without him lying.