Not Solas....but I wanted to share this silly comic about archers
Ah yes, that was how my first time as Bow-Quisitor went.
Gotta say, it's more fun being an Archer in DAI than it was in previous games, I just never liked how they were done there until I created Nanaya. Of all the classes I played the most throughout the DA Games, they were Rogue (Dual-Dagger usually) and Mage.
Same for me. Oh, I've tried out other characters and I admit a mage or two has seduced me since they turned out pretty well, but I find other classes/weapons generally frustrating (ESPECIALLY because no one can pick a lock like I can). All my canons are dagger-wielding rogues. All my new games start out as rogues. All my replays somehow end up being rogues. Almost every time I sit in front of a CC I try very hard to pick something else and I battle the feelings of dissatisfaction until I cave in and change the class to a dagger-wielding rogue. Any character that isn't a rogue ends up being abandoned after a while because nothing can top the thrill of playing a rogue. I just really love Daggers.
My backup is usually mage of some sort, but I have a terrible time hanging back and I always try to run in. So I do play mages like 5% of the time, but if a game lets me play a dagger-wielding rogue, I will.
I think they nixed a sex scene early on for him, once it was decided he'd be a love interest, because they knew where they were going with the character. And, well, Solas withheld a lot of very important things, not the least of which, is that he is basically Dalish Satan, has spies in your organization, gave Cory the Orb, and wants to tear down the Veil - quite probably destroying the world as you know it, and killing countless innocent people in the chaos.
It would have brought up a lot of arguments about consent and power imbalances that the devs probably wanted to dodge if at all possible. Solas' character gets dark enough by the end.
While you technically have more power over him in the game, initially, he is doing things behind the scenes you can't even imagine and have no reason to suspect, until it's much too late.
So yeah, I can see where some players might have issues with how much power he actually has, and what he allowed you to believe, and feel very betrayed, hurt and used, even though Solas is open and adamant that he truly loves a romanced Lavellan.
I get your argument about consent and power imbalances, and I agree. But if I were on the dev team, I'd point out that IRL relationships come and go like a whirlwind, a lot of the time you don't even get a chance to learn all the truths about a person and then suddenly the relationship is over; you actually cannot be entirely honest with your LI's, but I get it: Solas is actively hiding a very, very important part of himself. OK. But does that make their relations a 'violation'? You fell in love with each other for crying out loud, and yes, betrayals do happen. But you did go into the relationship willingly. If I found out such an important secret, I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that they were deliberately trying to trick me or something like that.
This might be a stretch, but I remember reading an article about the devs putting a stop to some 'rape scene' that they didn't realize was that until someone on the team pointed it out - could this have been that scene? Because Solas is Fen'Harel and thus the imbalance between them and his lies by omission are so colossal that players might feel violated if Solas had a normal sex scene?
If so, I feel vaguely insulted. I'm not a porcelain doll, my character chose to be in that relationship and she had a choice to end it, too. I knew he was shifty from the start, and though I didn't know the magnitude of it, that was part of what attracted me to him in the first place. IRL you take responsibility for both your good and bad judgement calls and relationships are a veritable minefield of bad judgements; I had relationships that make me shudder in horror to remember them and I wonder what the hell I was thinking; I'd feel violated if the unnamed individuals would want to press on and rekindle the relationship (pretty much even as an innocent suggestion - yes, it was that bad), but I also know that it was my reckless decision to get into it in the first place and I did go along with it at the time.
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
My backup is usually mage of some sort, but I have a terrible time hanging back and I always try to run in. So I do play mages like 5% of the time, but if a game lets me play a dagger-wielding rogue, I will.
I do like the close combat once i get used to it, and move between the dual-dagger rogue and the mage, knight-enchanter, arcane warrior. After a few min I get the hang of it, once I remember what number the best moves are set...I'm just about to make my rogue an assassin, which I really like, but I may shake things up a bit and try something different and try one of the others, just not sure which one I want to do. I have two of the three specialists ready to pick....I think Tempest is the other I completed, the smoke bomb?
My backup is usually mage of some sort, but I have a terrible time hanging back and I always try to run in. So I do play mages like 5% of the time, but if a game lets me play a dagger-wielding rogue, I will.
Hahaha, yes. I really like area effects for mages, that's one thing that I'd say is definitely in their advantage, but I also find myself in the middle of the fight and suddenly I'm dying and all my turns go to drinking health potions, it's ridiculous. In terms of characters, some of my mages have been pretty solid characters that I like, but there's just no beating the rogues. Mostly because I can adapt perfectly to their skills, I think, while I love some mage talents, I always like to be both in the thick of things and be able to vanish, sneak attack or just generally not be there when my slow enemies swing their swords at me. Plus all those annoying locks, I absolutely loathed it in any game where there were locks I couldn't open or traps I couldn't diffuse.
My backup is usually mage of some sort, but I have a terrible time hanging back and I always try to run in. So I do play mages like 5% of the time, but if a game lets me play a dagger-wielding rogue, I will.
There's a reason why I play on casual difficulty, and it's because I insist on playing a mage whilst doing this 90% of the time.
75% of my playthrough are mages and I play on nightmare with most Trials switched on 
Hahaha, yes. I really like area effects for mages, that's one thing that I'd say is definitely in their advantage, but I also find myself in the middle of the fight and suddenly I'm dying and all my turns go to drinking health potions, it's ridiculous. In terms of characters, some of my mages have been pretty solid characters that I like, but there's just no beating the rogues. Mostly because I can adapt perfectly to their skills, I think, while I love some mage talents, I always like to be both in the thick of things and be able to vanish, sneak attack or just generally not be there when my slow enemies swing their swords at me. Plus all those annoying locks, I absolutely loathed it in any game where there were locks I couldn't open or traps I couldn't diffuse.
You get me. 
75% of my playthrough are mages and I play on nightmare with most Trials switched on
Yikes! I'm not ready for dat! I'm having enough trouble with a mage on the hard setting right now! I am so not a combat person. 
75% of my playthrough are mages and I play on nightmare with most Trials switched on
Yikes! I'm not ready for dat! I'm having enough trouble with a mage on the hard setting right now! I am so not a combat person.
I play my first time through on Normal. Then I play subsequent games on casual. Most of the time. I'm there for the experience.
Not Solas....but I wanted to share this silly comic about archers
Hey! Don't laugh! Archers are fun, yo!
My personal tactic for whenever a baddie gets close to my archer is to either use Leaping Shot to leap away from them (and probably fall off a cliff or two) or use Stealth/Lost in the Shadows to disappear and sneak away from them. 
Aw, I had lots of fun as an archer in DAI. First game where I didn't feel penalized for choosing it. And you want some real fun? Tempest archer.
^This! Tempest archers ftw!
Yikes! I'm not ready for dat! I'm having enough trouble with a mage on the hard setting right now! I am so not a combat person.
It's a matter of build, both of PC and companions I'm not exactly a super-dedicated min-maxer, but after some time spent with the game I usually can spiff the party or PC up stuff so it becomes effective, with hardly any deaths and no wipes. I mean, at that point in game's life I'm also using help from mods and cheat engine on PC, but I never really use it to outright cheat, as much as tweak stuff up, to get better mats or switch how armor looks or works for the sake of variety.
In any case - high crit+attack or high crit+crit dmg build and guard on hit is always a good direction take
^This! Tempest archers ftw!
One of my Trevelyans is a Tempest dual-wield and I love it. Frost flask + close the gap + freeze them all + shatter, shatter, shatter!
Art post.
Gorgeous smiling Solas by ithesalesman. 
Solas being all flirty for the emoji and color palette meme. 
Dirthara-ma. May you learn.
Solas without hair and with hair.
A WIP preview of nanananananablr's Solavellan comic.
Trespasser Solas
Some Dragon Age doodles done for Huevember. (Merrill, Morrigan, Bethany, Vivienne, Carver, Solas, and Anders.)
One of my Trevelyans is a Tempest dual-wield and I love it. Frost flask + close the gap + freeze them all + shatter, shatter, shatter!
Tsk tsk, don't we litter the world with shattered flasks enough as it is? You have to go and play a class that specializes in shattering even more flasks!
Tsk tsk, don't we litter the world with shattered flasks enough as it is? You have to go and play a class that specializes in shattering even more flasks!
My Trevelyan shatters flasks even in her free time! I mean, I'm pretty sure she romanced Cullen just for that shattered flask that fell from his desk... I think it's some kind of fetish 
My Trevelyan shatters flasks even in her free time! I mean, I'm pretty sure she romanced Cullen just for that shattered flask that fell from his desk... I think it's some kind of fetish
I've talked about power imbalances at length in sexual relationships before, including in Solavellan, so I won't touch on that much. Needless to say, at the time of the relationship's occurrence, the romance is designed in such a way to ensure that it is the Inquisitor who is invested, forward, certain, and in control - this isn't something she's been manipulated into, this isn't something she's being pressured into. I think the devs did a good job in portraying that.
*snip*
I get it, I really do. I'm all for addressing concerns like this, and I can totally see that people would have issues about this consent question. IRL I would probably be a lot less sanguine about a lot of things in DAI, this included. If I were one of the devs, maybe I would even have pushed to omit the cutscene, not to mention that from an artistic point of view it does have angsty power. This undercover stuff is interesting and heartbreaking - if Solavellan would have been along those lines, I would probably have an entirely different view. I agree, though, that Solavellan has a different context. He even breaks up with you, ostensibly because it's the right thing to do, he tells you that he doesn't want you to see what he becomes - but he does stress the fact that, for all his power and infamy, he still is a man, albeit immortal, I can see his character initially finding nothing wrong with intimacy because of this, but he 'comes to his senses' as he tries to explain to you (poorly).
Anyway, I'm not on a crusade here to prove a point, I was merely expressing my personal dissatisfaction with its lack, not because I think the story needs it, but just because I want it, I was definitely not trying to imply that anyone is wrong for not wanting the same thing or that the devs were wrong, far from it. The entire romance is brilliant and it really works for me, but his content is good to the point where it's never enough for me, and on further speculation I thought I would be just a little more mollified had there been a cutscene - but I do respect the decision not to include it for all of the above reasons. (I don't have to like it, though. I would have been more than fine with it, so I grumble.) When it comes down to it I just want more Solas, period. 
As to Anders: I would have loved to have options like that, selling him out and seeing more active mage underground stuff going on. Sure, since I also love Anders it would have been really, really difficult to sell him out, but to have the option would have been brilliant. (And I do have a pro-templar playthrough that I secretly despise where I would totally have gone for it.)
There's a reason why I play on casual difficulty, and it's because I insist on playing a mage whilst doing this 90% of the time.
I get it, I really do. I'm all for addressing concerns like this, and I can totally see that people would have issues about this consent question. IRL I would probably be a lot less sanguine about a lot of things in DAI, this included. If I were one of the devs, maybe I would even have pushed to omit the cutscene, not to mention that from an artistic point of view it does have angsty power. This undercover stuff is interesting and heartbreaking - if Solavellan would have been along those lines, I would probably have an entirely different view. I agree, though, that Solavellan has a different context. He even breaks up with you, ostensibly because it's the right thing to do, he tells you that he doesn't want you to see what he becomes - but he does stress the fact that, for all his power and infamy, he still is a man, albeit immortal, I can see his character initially finding nothing wrong with intimacy because of this, but he 'comes to his senses' as he tries to explain to you (poorly).
Anyway, I'm not on a crusade here to prove a point, I was merely expressing my personal dissatisfaction with its lack, not because I think the story needs it, but just because I want it, I was definitely not trying to imply that anyone is wrong for not wanting the same thing or that the devs were wrong, far from it. The entire romance is brilliant and it really works for me, but his content is good to the point where it's never enough for me, and on further speculation I thought I would be just a little more mollified had there been a cutscene - but I do respect the decision not to include it for all of the above reasons. (I don't have to like it, though. I would have been more than fine with it, so I grumble.) When it comes down to it I just want more Solas, period.
As to Anders: I would have loved to have options like that, selling him out and seeing more active mage underground stuff going on. Sure, since I also love Anders it would have been really, really difficult to sell him out, but to have the option would have been brilliant. (And I do have a pro-templar playthrough that I secretly despise where I would totally have gone for it.)
Same here. I like rift mage the most, followed by necromancer, and I've never actually done a KE play through, but regardless for all my mages every battle is melee ahoy.
Don't worry, I understand completely where you're coming from. I would have loved more content too - I would have loved a cutscene painting together (that mural in the Inquisitor's bedroom is always headcanon'd as a joint project of theirs during a Solavellan play through), or a walk in the garden where you get an actual chance to either debate and challenge him, or listen to more stories he hasn't yet told anyone else. My Lavellan likely had a sexual relationship with him and I'd love to at least seen that hinted at.
I still haven't done a pro-templar playthrough. I've done a cackling blood mage purple& red!Hawke who manoeuvred between blunt, snide, and snarky, or Morrigan!Hawke as I like to imagine her, who chose to do a lot of awful things (she gave Isabela to the Arishok because I never use her in combat anyway, it seemed like the practical option for someone who didn't care). But I'm actually not sure I can bring myself to do that when all I know is that I'll cause lots of pain through my choices. I can be a smug bastard, but I feel weird being a *righteous* one.
DA2 in general is a game which had so much potential which wasn't used, Anders included. I would have loved the option to be more actively involved with his mage rights stuff too, on the flip side - perhaps side-quests involving finding secure locations, smuggling people out, & protecting vulnerable parties on dangerous routes, aggravating templars, chasing templars, etc. I would have loved to have seen his manifesto in a codex entry, that would have been fun.
*snip*
#.# Those are such nice headcanons! I wonder if they'd be willing to add a mini-expansion pack for more Solavellan cutscenes? I would so spend my hard earned money on that. Not necessarily sexual ones (though I'd welcome it), but stuff that we only get to headcanon, brief nothings and misty-eyed glances... Come on, the game is long finished, the crunching time is over, they totally could do this. (I'm not obsessed and desperate or anything. )
Way back when we were still waiting for DAI I planned several variation playthroughs so that I would have saves of all different flavors. This was before the Keep was announced, of course, when it turned out that I needn't have gone to all that trouble, but I might have done it anyway, just to experience every asepct of DAII. I didn't get around to a cackling blood mage yet, but I love the idea! I'm totally going to try that. The pro-templar PT, though... it was painfully righteous. I wanted to strangle my Hawke and stuff him down a well. He was the antithesis of my canon to a fault. No sense of humor, always doing 'the right thing' no matter who got hurt, he ruined his friends with chastisements and interventions, he romanced his polar opposite and managed to reduce her to a quiet, obedient follower with no aspirations and he became viscount and the leader of the templars, which I find hilarious in a tragic way. And most offensively: he was a warrior. Useless in picking locks and sneaking about, a true 'paragon' and the most boring personality ever. *shudder*
DAII I think was horribly rushed. It had a lot of potential, and I loved many, many things about it, but I agree, there could have been so much more. I think part of that is illusory, though, because I calculated that the gameplay time isn't all that short, but if felt incredibly short, and considering how fast they put it out there, they just didn't put in the time necessary to take away that rushed feel (not to say it was their fault, not the devs themselves). It was alleviated a bit with the DLC's, though, I felt like it was a little more complete when including those. It would have been great had there been more opportunities to truly get involved with either mages or templars, too, like actively sabotaging one side and things like that. I realize that Hawke was supposed to go for a kind of biased neutrality in so far as s/he is able, but it could have been done better. I'd reference The Witcher for this as an example of a good execution of such a polar concept. (But Witcher isn't fair, who can resist characters like Yaevinn and Iorveth?? )
I get it, I really do. I'm all for addressing concerns like this, and I can totally see that people would have issues about this consent question. IRL I would probably be a lot less sanguine about a lot of things in DAI, this included. If I were one of the devs, maybe I would even have pushed to omit the cutscene, not to mention that from an artistic point of view it does have angsty power. This undercover stuff is interesting and heartbreaking - if Solavellan would have been along those lines, I would probably have an entirely different view. I agree, though, that Solavellan has a different context. He even breaks up with you, ostensibly because it's the right thing to do, he tells you that he doesn't want you to see what he becomes - but he does stress the fact that, for all his power and infamy, he still is a man, albeit immortal, I can see his character initially finding nothing wrong with intimacy because of this, but he 'comes to his senses' as he tries to explain to you (poorly).
Anyway, I'm not on a crusade here to prove a point, I was merely expressing my personal dissatisfaction with its lack, not because I think the story needs it, but just because I want it, I was definitely not trying to imply that anyone is wrong for not wanting the same thing or that the devs were wrong, far from it. The entire romance is brilliant and it really works for me, but his content is good to the point where it's never enough for me, and on further speculation I thought I would be just a little more mollified had there been a cutscene - but I do respect the decision not to include it for all of the above reasons. (I don't have to like it, though. I would have been more than fine with it, so I grumble.) When it comes down to it I just want more Solas, period.
Good points have been made one all sides of this discussion. I too can see why they didn't include the scene. I get it, but I don't like it. I would have liked the option to make the physical intimacy non-head-canon because, like you said, I just want more Solas period. I would have appreciated repeatable kissy kissy scene too. My husband keeps triggering his kissy kissy scene with Cassandra when I'm in the room just to rub it in my face! BP
The "you can head-canon whatever you want" vague dialogue stuff made the whole situation muddled. I never even considered that Solas and Lavellan could have done the deed until weird things starting coming out of the characters' mouths that seemed totally unrelated to the dialogue wheel text I'd selected. I personally don't know if my own Lavellan made it with Elfy McSchmexy Pants or not. I'll probably figure that out in the next game. Maybe? I'm so confused.
Since we are talking about dubious consent and people feeling like their characters were taken advantage of...why do you all suppose BioWare went ahead with the Blackwall sex scene? I've never played through that romance, but I watched gamermd83 do it. How is that not as bad/rapey? The dude gets what he wants from you, while you are still in the dark about his past, then abandons you in the morning. Is it just that Blackwall isn't the Dalish devil and he only killed a few innocent people? Solas is at least honest about his name.
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