6 réponses à ce sujet

[tried2bmerciful]

*SPOILERS AHEAD*


You've been warned!


Okay, now that that's out of the way, the basis for my theory, then the theory itself.

The basis:

Solas is wildly inconsistent about who "his" people are. Sometimes the elfquisitor is endearingly one of "our people" and sometimes s/he's scornfully one of "your people." Same with Sera. Also, it's a crapshoot when you ask him to interject on elven matters whether you get "What?! Pointy ears and suddenly I'm token elf guy?!" or "Damn right, Da'len! Let me elf-splain a few things!". The best example of that is talking to Abelas upon entering the temple of Mythal vs. talking to him before departing. Then there's the romance, even within the same scene he can go from pulling you towards him to pulling away from you, one minute offering to remove your slave markings to free you and slipping you some fade-tongue and the next giving the ol' "it's not you it's me" line and telling you to turn your attention to more important matters (like there're more important matters than getting hit and quit by a frickin' elven god!). There was a bunch of other things, something about him hating Grey Wardens but bromancing blackwall, and some other detail that'll come to me when I lay down to sleep.

The theory:

He met the spark of Fen'harel while exploring the fade, and joined with it to allow it to fulfill it's purpose or something like that, basically akin to how Flemeth and Mythal merged with one another except, while Flemythal seems to work together rather harmoniously, Sol'harel (it works!) is at constant odds. Perhaps they are unified on the larger issues: slavery; spirits; tongue or no tongue... but have such animosity with each other on other issues that it creates a split personality-type situation. Perhaps there's even a bit of an abuse of power on Fen'harel's end where he prevents Solas from saying or doing certain things as he did with Cole, blocking Cole from seeing his "hurts" and making Cole forget him. Solas wpuld likely dutifully allow this knowing what's at stake. I would imagine it is Solas saying "our people" to Lavellan and Sera and Fen'harel saying "My people? Elves?! Yea-no." I read that Patrick Weekes said Solas is honest, maybe Fen'harel the liar then, he is known as the trickster god afterall. I also read that Mr. Weekes said Solas wanted to spill his guts to Lavellan during the final Romance scene but changed his mind and told her about the vallaslin instead, but maybe Fen'harel changed his mind and allowed him to remove the vallaslin instead as consolation. I don't imagine Fen'harel has malicious intent, but he does say it himself, somewhat solemnly, "The people... they need me." This was the justification for making Mythal, his old friend and fellow god, pay the price (whatever that is, seemingly absorbing her life, leaving her dead) so I can't imagine he'd draw the line at burdening some nobody to a life of solitude. Last thing, maybe that's why he gave his orb to Corypheus. Maybe Fen'harel was weak after his slumber, couldn't take control of Solas and relied on messages to Solas of some sort and something got confused, or maybe Solas just disregarded him and thought he knew better, gave it to Corypheus thinking he could help it do whatever it's meant to do and Corypheus betrayed him... them, Sol'harel. That's all I got for now, sorry for the ramble-iness, it's late and I've thought way too much into this.

[Uirebhiril]

That's an interesting theory. I suppose it has as much possibility being correct as some of the others we've all come up with, though a good number of people aren't too fond of the idea of Solas just being another vessel character like Flemeth was. There's also some folks who believe Sera must be carrying Andruil, and if that were the case then it really would start to feel a bit too contrived.

 

That said, it would be hilarious if you were correct and you only got one response, ever, to this post. A year from now you could gloat and feel smug.

[Gervaise]

I've always been trying to work out exactly what Solas is.   Either the vessel for Fen'Harel or simply the cover story that the Dread Wolf thought up.  

 

The first answer can be supported by plenty of other examples of where spirits have cohabited with a mortal and in some cases created a split personality. Anders springs to mind here.   He was this funny, fun loving, but also caring guy (he was a spirit healer after all), who became convinced by Justice that joining forces would be a good thing.   Thereafter he's constantly being pulled in different directions; Justice doesn't really approve if he has a relationship with Hawke; Justice gets real narky if Hawke is a rival and tries to persuade him to stop doing whatever he has planned.  Anders even says that he used to like the odd drink but Justice doesn't approve now.   I imagine the reason he is so bad at Wicked Grace is because Justice doesn't approve.    Now scale this up to an ancient elven god trying to conduct his affairs through a mortal and you can see how Solas might seem rather conflicted.    The argument against this is that Solas seems exactly the same when in the Fade, whereas with Anders (even though we are only going there in the normal way not physically) Justice completely comes to the fore.

 

The second answer would explain why Solas appears to contradict himself frequently, because being only a cover story that was thought up recently on the fly, he is not totally invested in the persona he claims to be.   It would also account for him being conflicted.   Think of a deep cover spy who falls for someone while on a mission, can't stay with them or the mission will fail, but genuinely cares for them.    If they tell them the truth, the cover will be blown and the mission will fail.    So they keep on their original course, because they totally believe in what they are trying to achieve, even though they know it will be very hard on the person that have grown to love.      This explanation would seem to fit more with what the writer says about Solas.    He is as honest as he can be without blowing his cover.

 

I have to admit that saying Solas is honest to my mind is stretching it a bit but I suppose you can say that he never outright lies but he does evade and equivocate in order to avoid giving a direct answer.     This would be in keeping with the idea of a trickster god, although that definition has now been called into question and it has been suggested by other lore masters to the Dalish that "rebel" would be a better term to describe him.  

 

Incidentally have you read Masked Empire; because there is a character in there who would seem to have some link with Fen'Harel.

[tried2bmerciful]

I completely forgot about Anders/Justice!(Justders?) So there is a precedent for my theory. I think I like your better though, it would seem to fit more with Solas' surprisimg enjoyment of 'the Game' that plays out in Orlais. Also, the reminds me of Blackwall's warning about playing diamondback with Solas, saying he taught Solas the game then Solas turned around and took him for everything, as if he faked being an amateur to rob him blind (or naked, as the case is here). How, then, could he have the audacity to be angry with Blackwall after Blackwall's revelation? Maybe guilt, or he saw an opportunity to strengthen his own cover... he did later apologize, maybe he realized he was being a bit of a hypocrite? So many ideas, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, I hope they don't do something dumb with this story arc, it's too good.

[tried2bmerciful]

And no, I haven't, I need to though

[Abelis]

Wot I think|:

1) Mythal was murdered, thus she needed a new physical body. Fen'Harel wouldn't need a vessel, he never "lost" his physical body.

2) The contradictions regarding who his people are, I think its because he initially is so convinced that the modern elves have nothing in common with the ancient ones, apart from their appearance. They are so stack with their messed up beliefs of what the elves once were, yet they are not willing to learn the truth when he tries to tell them, thus making them "strangers" to him. When he meets Lavellan (I dont know how he responds to other inquisitors, all my pt was with an elf ) his views slowly change, as s/he is willing to listen, open minded and wants to know the truth.

[Gervaise]

The contradictions aren't just to do with who he views as his People.    He claims to be a simple apostate who has lived most of his life out in the wilds avoiding civilisation.    Then in conversation with Blackwall he talks about fighting in an army and at the Winter Palace and afterwards he talks about how he enjoys the intrigue and how it takes him back to a previous time in his life.   If you challenge him on this, you get a "Solas Disapproves" and he explains it away, as he does much of the time, by saying how he saw things in the Fade.  

 

Then there is the conversation when he is nearly beside himself about what the Wardens are planning and how they need to be stopped.   I naturally assume this is because of what they are doing in binding spirits, so not all their demon army would start off like that but through being bent against their natural inclinations.   Yet when I reassure him on that front, he has one of those "blank" moments when he seems not to get what I'm referring to.   So whatever is upsetting him, concern for the spirits is not uppermost in his mind.

 

If you play through as his romance you miss some of the conversations that seem "off" through selecting the heart icon.    When I subsequently played through as a male elf, I was able to opt for different options and as a result upset him far more through calling him out over odd comments that he makes.   Being emotionally unattached made me far more sceptical of his story and frustrated when I couldn't question him more about it, particularly after the Temple of Mythal.   The fact that you can't bring up with him that you actually meet with Mythal is to my mind ridiculous, particularly if you are playing as an elf and are on friendly terms with him, whether you drink from the well or not.