I never said that all his actions could be painted as grey or black or white, only that the effects aren't really black or white. Either way however - we still don't really know what Solas means when he says "I will save the People", nor what will really happen, nor if reasons he gave at the end of Trespasser are the only things that motivates him. From the looks of it it seems that there's far more to the picture that we're yet to see, so you can't claim with full certainty that he was acting out of "evil" or "sinister" purposes.
Add to that the fact that he chose to kill off a bastard that was going to fall on the world with the force of a Bight itself still speaks in his favor - it may not have worked, and his later plans might have ended the world as it is now, but in itself the plan of eliminating a power-mad Blighted magister and his supremacist clique is hardly evil. Like I mentioned in post before, Corypheus WAS on a cusp of conquering the South with or without the Orb. Josie even points that out in the game after we get to Skyhold.
If he didn't particularly care about the wellbeing of Thedosians he would have not bother with Cory and found other ways to open his orb, that may have been way more sinister than what was supposed to happen with Corypheus, who would have happily blown himself up if it wasn't for his body hopping. Add to that the fact that Solas "not caring about Thedosians" is disproven both by actions in base game (instead of chasing after the orb he risks everything - his life and plans - to help and save the world from Breach and Corypheus) and especially in Trespasser, where he goes out of his way to save Inquisitor (even if he doesn't like them) and the South, even if it would greatly benefit him to do the exact opposite.
I mean, he even had a fantastic excuse to sneakily eliminate Inky out of the picture - just close the eluvians, let Inky die after Daarvarad and blame everything on the Qunari! In fact, why would he even bother to disrupt the Qunari plan? They'd just blow Southern leadership to smithereens and then lead an invasion, which would only help him organize the Veil tearing party in the shadows, without anyone the wiser.
I don't really think he ever "chose" to rid the world of Corypheus. Yes, he thought the orb would kill him, but it's not like he ever even tried to find an alternative way to open it (and if he did, we don't really know of it). He didn't act out of altruism, he needed the orb opened, he didn't want to wait for his powers to come back so he gave it to the only being he knew of who came close to having the power of an Evanuris, Corypheus. He didn't pick and choose, he was forced to act by his own sense of urgency, Corypheus' death would have just been a nice bonus
About the Thedosians, he may have come to care about them by the time Trespasser comes in (and i would argue against this point, as i already did), but he himself says that when he woke up he thought he was walking amongst Tranquils, plus his comments about he thought most people "petty and self-centered"..... yeah, i can't really see him caring all that much about them and, at the same time, i don't really think he would have given the orb to someone like Corypheus if it was his people that he was, even in 1 chance out of 100, endangering
He gave Corypheus the orb because he (Solas) didn't have the power to use it, which means, at the time, he couldn't actually face Cory and win, and since the latter always had the orb with him it's only logical to think that the best chance he had of regaining it laid with The Inquisition. The proof is that he sticks around even if he outright dislikes The Inquisitor, he knows he has to if he wants his orb back. Plus, it's safe to say that his idea of merging the world and the fade doesn't involve a literal Breach, so closing it was probably something he would have needed to do anyway
The last point, i don't really know. Maybe he wants someone to stop him, maybe he thinks the Inquisitor can't stop him, dunno
Chaotic factors?Unique according to which standard?The Orb was activated by Corypheus then grabbed by the PC ,the anchor was released and the explosion happened as Solas predicted everything went like he predicted apart from Corypheus not dying thus the Orb remained in his hand.
By what factors? The spell Corypheus was casting was interrupted by the Divine knocking the Orb out of his hand. If the spell had been complete, the Divine would be dead.
Another entity not involved with the spell process then picks up the Orb, which was under another beings magical influence, which was interrupted.
The Orb explosion didn't just not harm the Inquisitor, it didn't harm the Divine either. This has no explanation, since the Divine doesn't have any Mark. So the explosion didn't happen as Solas predicted. There was some anomalies involved even in that aspect.
Your argument that this was not an atypical Orb unlocking event falls short because of these factors.
How do we know that the Divine wasn't dead from the explosion?The spirit present in the fade is an imitation of justina and the memories of the fade are by their nature perspectives and this is the problem,we don't know what happened at the Conclave.
The spirit we talk to later tells us that the Divine died in the Fade while the Inquisitor was escaping.
Which holes?Your arguments were crafted upon suppositions while mine by two simple observations.1)That the anchor was released before of the explosion2)That the anchor protected the owner from the explosion.Two facts that are far more valuable than all of yours speculations of"it's a mystery ,or we have never seen an Orb before ,or the ritual was incomplete ecc.."..or the other user who even speculated that the orb can release more than one anchor.
Of for f.... Really, this is getting to the point where I seriously consider that you're just a troll. You can't be that silly to NOT notice just how many times I make it clear that your entire assumption falls apart, when faced with a fact that:
a.) INQUISITOR. HAD. DISRUPTED. THE RITUAL! - therefore saying that the orb has exploded after it bestowed Anchor (a fact that is actually a speculation) means squat, because the sample you base your assumption on is entirely flawed. How you can even deem it as more valuable than my "speculation" is beyond me.
additionally: 
. Justinia had no Anchor bestowed on her, yet she survived the initial explosion.
Your entire suppositions fall apart just based on those two facts.
Plus, it's amazing that I can write 10 times that the ritual was disrupted and you still get it wrong. Disrupted doesn't mean incomplete - it means that it can have unforeseeable effects and guess what... it's exactly what happens. It had effects neither Corypheus nor Solas could have ever realistically predicted, which is why for both of them it's a mystery.
Like, at this point I have to laugh at you mocking Solas for deeming Inquisitor's survival "a mystery", because it almost sounds as if you know better how the Orb and ancient magic works than its frikking owner. And sorry, if I have to listen to in-game explanation of Inky's survival as mysterious, or near-miraculous, as deemed by both Solas and Corypheus, I'm inclined to believe them than a person whose only line of reasoning is "the anchor is released before it exploded and based on that one-time event of a DISRUPTED ritual that had catastrophic, unforeseen consequences that resulted in the Breach I 100% assume that this is exactly what would happen to Cory if there was no Inky around!"
No, you can't do that. The sample you base your assumption on has been a one-time unique event that Xerrai has aptly described as a cosmic fluke.
My whole story revolves around the idea of disruption. It would disappoint me a bit if it weren't true. 
He couldn't get an audience with the Divine (and his superiors didn't care much for him either), so he snuck in the hall where she was... and lo and behold.
Anyways..
I don't really think he ever "chose" to rid the world of Corypheus. Yes, he thought the orb would kill him, but it's not like he ever even tried to find an alternative way to open it (and if he did, we don't really know of it). He didn't act out of altruism, he needed the orb opened, he didn't want to wait for his powers to come back so he gave it to the only being he knew of who came close to having the power of an Evanuris, Corypheus. He didn't pick and choose, he was forced to act by his own sense of urgency, Corypheus' death would have just been a nice bonus
If you say that we don't know if he tried to find an alternative way to open it, don't claim that he didn't try to find an alternative to open it 
In fact, how would he know that he was too weak to unlock it, if he didn't try it?
Also, I never claimed that Solas acted out of complete altruism - what I'm saying is that choosing to eliminate a supremacist group and their leader hell-bent on conquering the world is still a point FOR Solas, rather than against him, because of all groups or people he may have been able to chose to eliminate he actually picked one that actually was a genuine threat to pretty much everyone. You don't have to act completely altruistically to still make decisions that are beneficial rather than harmful to others, which seems to be Solas's chosen modus operandi.
Also - how do you know he didn't wait for his powers to go back? Where do you extrapolate that knowledge from? How do you know that he's not acting not out of impatience, but necessity, because something is coming and he's running out of time? I mean, the dude has spent THOUSANDS of years in the Fade, quiet as a mouse - you think he wouldn't wait a couple more centuries if he deemed it necessary?
Based on what we can see in the game I'm pretty sure there's either something coming, or there's a specific time frame (I predict that Solas needs some special celestial event for Things To Happen) that Solas is waiting for OR is himself running out of time. Among some other hints he did state to Varric, when the dwarf defended the Wardens, that for all the bad they did they did indeed buy "us" (as in, he counts himself in) some time, like there some sort of gruesome fate that awaits Thedas that is unrelated to his own plans. And given that we see eldritch horrors coming from each dark hole now and the world is constantly threatened by the Blight (which Solas is terrified of, btw) it's not that hard to come into a conclusion that we've not seen the worst that can befall on Thedas yet.
About the Thedosians, he may have come to care about them by the time Trespasser comes in (and i would argue against this point, as i already did), but he himself says that when he woke up he thought he was walking amongst Tranquils, plus his comments about he thought most people "petty and self-centered"..... yeah, i can't really see him caring all that much about them and, at the same time, i don't really think he would have given the orb to someone like Corypheus if it was his people that he was, even in 1 chance out of 100, endangering
Wut? Okay, how is deeming people as petty and self-centered somehow a mark of someone who condemns or doesn't care about people? 
Leliana does it so too (Inky can even point out that she has hardly any faith in Thedosians, after she calls mast people small-minded and so on). So is Cassandra in fact in banter with Solas himself! (Solas: "People can be trying, mankind most of all." Cassandra: "That... is an excellent point."). Dorian keeps going on and on how bad the Tevenes are, yet he's in fact deeply caring and patriotic. Even Varric, a people's person, oftentimes doesn't have high opinion on them.
Seriously, saying that someone deems most population as petty and self-centered is hardly a hallmark of "not caring". I myself oftentimes bemoan the fact that large swathes of population are small-minded and petty - hardly makes an uncaring person; in fact I bemoan that fact precisely *because* I care.
But I digress... I've already pointed out numerous times that there's ample evidence i the game that shows that Solas does indeed care - the banters, the approvals, the actions. I'd also like to point out that Solas saves Inky and South even if Inquisitor never really became a catalyst for Solas' to change.
He gave Corypheus the orb because he (Solas) didn't have the power to use it, which means, at the time, he couldn't actually face Cory and win, and since the latter always had the orb with him it's only logical to think that the best chance he had of regaining it laid with The Inquisition.
Only we know that Solas has his own agents whom he could totally act through without putting himself in an enormous personal risk. And not just enormous risk to his life - I mean, we can drag him everywhere and he never objects - which effectively means his plans go to bust when he dies, but also an enormous risk of changing his perspective on the world... which, guess what, if Inky is good enough to him, is exactly what happens.
The proof is that he sticks around even if he outright dislikes The Inquisitor, he knows he has to if he wants his orb back. Plus, it's safe to say that his idea of merging the world and the fade doesn't involve a literal Breach, so closing it was probably something he would have needed to do anyway
The proof that he stays, even if he outright dislikes Inquisitor, can prove that he does what he thinks it right as much as it proves that he wants to get he orb.
Also... er.. the idea of merging both worlds actually involves literally tearing the Veil entirely, not just poking a large hole through it.
The last point, i don't really know. Maybe he wants someone to stop him, maybe he thinks the Inquisitor can't stop him, dunno
There's a variety of reasons for him to do it, one of the main one is in fact laid out most clearly on enemy route - "your death would cause more senseless chaos. More bloodshed. It is unnecessary."
So he saves disliked Inky and stops the Qun specifically to prevent unnecessary suffering. As for befriended or romanced Inky, he obviously has personal reasons to save them, but if a friend!Inky chooses redemption route, they clearly state they they will prove Solas that the world doesn't have to be destroyed. Solas's response? "I will treasure the chance to be wrong again, my friend".
So, yep. He specifically saves them to give the world a real fighting chance and appears prepared that he may indeed be stopped.
No, I don't like it either. But then I don't like any of the armors the Inquisitor got.
Well, I only like a couple, not none, but I feel your pain. I like the Grey Warden armours, and I like the "Skin" outfits from Trespasser, but that is DLC and only really looks good on human females, so... Other than that, I either tolerate or don't like them.
The whole fault thing is interesting.
For example, I could say this is all the fault of the Evanuris. They murdered Mythal. If they'd never done that, Solas would have never raised the Veil to imprison them.
It is interesting. It can just keep going back if you let it. It's a bit like revenge like that, except revenge keeps going forward.
They can also be seen as partly at fault. I don't dispute that. Without them Solas would never have destroyed the world and commit genocide and now want to destroy the world and commit genocide again to fix the first time.
To quote another villain who wants to destroy the world to save it, "Everyone creates the thing they dread."
And the people who blame Batman for the Joker are right to do so. Batman certainly accepts that fact and partially blames himself, as we see countless times in the franchise. Again, I point to the Ultron quote.
I don't believe Solas has committed genocide already. Did I miss something? The veil altered the world, but didn't seem to kill anyone.
Off-topic I guess, but I can't blame Batman for "creating" the Joker. It's not like Ultron, which was created deliberately. The Joker was already a horrible person before Batman. I blame the Joker for the bad things he did, not Batman for giving him motivation. Besides, if Batman never became Batman, everyone in Gotham would have died a couple times over, so it seems worth provoking a few criminals to me.
It's entirely possible that it's just an unintended effect in animation. Still, there are things in cinematics that are oftentimes not shown yet are still there - like Solas holding romanced Lavellan's hand when he kisses her. Not anything we can see in cinematic, but yet a detail that bears significance.
True, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but I wonder if sometimes these things occur because the animations are done before the camera angles are chosen, and something like Solas holding her hand may have originally meant to have been shown directly, but ended up not either because they changed their minds or just missed it with the camera.
*Shrug*
Well it could also be that... well... the mark belonged to Solas. the "Fade" hand follwing his movement might simply be because of the connection between it and its proper owner. Cole also mentions that "Your hand hurts. A heartbeat. Not yours. Hammering the beat of a song in its final verse. I'm sorry."
Though I'm not sure what it means
Hmmm... what if the Anchor was acting up because Solas himself was growing in power, and since it's technically HIS mark, Inquisitor is in that way pretty much directly connected to him. Yet since the power is overflowing and Inky has no body or trained will to handle this, their own body reacts the way it does.
I don't know what it means for the future though. But I can't help sometimes to think that - with some hints in the game, the comparisons, the bestowal of his own, important fortress into Inky's hands AND the recent revelations from Patrick Weekes, who suggest to look for visual similarities between post-epilogue scene with Flemythal and scene of meeting SOlas in Trespasser - sometimes it almost seems as if Solas... is grooming a successor. Maybe not a literal successor perhaps, but maybe someone who will inherit his struggles. That's a distinct possibility too.
Yeah, it could, but there isn't really much difference between what we both said, is there? Either Solas is controlling the Mark, which mimics him, or the Mark mimics Solas automatically because he owns it.
Ha, who knows what any of this means? The Mark acting up because it's connected to Solas as he gains power is a good theory though, since as of now we don't actually know why the Mark got worse after it was seemingly totally calm at the end of DA:I vanilla. Nice.
Hmm, I need to compare those scenes I guess. Has anyone already? I know they've been compared to the Red Lyrium Idol before, which was interesting.
I have strong reasons to believe that the anchor is unique and that once is bestowed it cannot be replicated from the same foci.Here someone was arguing that Solas failed because of some sort of cosmic bad luck but that is a falsehood,Solas failed becasue his plan was brutally flawed from the start.
Alright, what are those reasons? I didn't see any indication that an orb can only produce one Anchor. Why was Solas' plan flawed? He knows the intricacies of the orb and how it works, so I'm inclined to believe that if Corypheus didn't have his body-hopping ability (which Solas could not possibly have known he had) and the ritual was not interrupted (which Solas could not possibly have predicted), his plan would have gone perfectly and the veil would already be down.
So yes, that does sound like bad luck to me. The plan was sound, but as they say, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."
a.) INQUISITOR. HAD. DISRUPTED. THE RITUAL! - therefore saying that the orb has exploded after it bestowed Anchor (a fact that is actually a speculation) means squat, because the sample you base your assumption on is entirely flawed. How you can even deem it as more valuable than my "speculation" is beyond me.
-A fact that's a fact and not a speculation
yes my fact(and not assumption)is flawed according to your own flawed perspective and is more valuable because is a fact,anchor first explosion later.
additionally:
Additionally Justina was sucked into the fade thus dodged the explosion she was not invested by it that's why she survived,that she survived isn't proof of anything.
Plus, it's amazing that I can write 10 times that the ritual was disrupted and you still get it wrong. Disrupted doesn't mean incomplete - it means that it can have unforeseeable effects and guess what... it's exactly what happens. It had effects neither Corypheus nor Solas could have ever realistically predicted, which is why for both of them it's a mystery.
Is amazing how stubborn you are to not understand that this doesn't change the fact that the anchor was prepared to be released before of that explosion,disrupted or not disrputed understood?
Like, at this point I have to laugh at you mocking Solas for deeming Inquisitor's survival "a mystery", because it almost sounds as if you know better how the Orb and ancient magic works than its frikking owner. And sorry, if I have to listen to in-game explanation of Inky's survival as mysterious, or near-miraculous, as deemed by both Solas and Corypheus, I'm inclined to believe them than a person whose only line of reasoning is "the anchor is released before it exploded and based on that one-time event of a DISRUPTED ritual that had catastrophic, unforeseen consequences that resulted in the Breach I 100% assume that this is exactly what would happen to Cory if there was no Inky around!"
No, you can't do that. The sample you base your assumption on has been a one-time unique event that Xerrai has aptly described as a cosmic fluke.
Like at this point i have to dismiss you and your arrogance entirely,calling those who disagree with you as childish or laugh at them for this or that on their own statements while your logic is even more risible than theirs.
I don't get what the argument is. It looks like you guys agree on the sequence of events and are still somehow arguing
The argument is nonsensical. At this point we'e reaching Dai Grepher's level of denial.
I don't get what the argument is. It looks like you guys agree on the sequence of events and are still somehow arguing
I don't think it's so much the sequence of events that's at issue. It's the value of the events, whether typical or atypical. It's also about whether or not Solas should have reasonably anticipated the events in the light of being typical or atypical. That's how I see it, anyway.
If Corypheus unlocked the orb, and Corypheus died, Solas could use the orb however he wants. The only thing Solas could not foresee is Corypheus surviving. I'm not sure why you think his plan is so flawed.This demonstrate that Solas plan was flawed since its design phase regardless of any unpredictable variable occurred along the road.
He did not considered the eventuality that the anchor may had bestowed from the Orb before the explosion and that as a result of it either being lost with the owner or being with the owner out of his grasp.
Even if Corypheus would have lost the anchor as the result of the explosion in order to resurrect himself
(you are assuming that he wouldn't have been able to dodge it like the inquisitor did and that the anchor wouldn't have been transferred to the new body)my point still stand and it's the simple fact that Solas would have lost his anchor.
The problem is not that the plan was flawed but rather that i don't really understand how it could have been successful at all.
I'm not ignoring that the ritual was interrupted but rather that the Orb granted the anchor before to cause the blast and that we have no proof to say that if the ritual would have been completed it would have been the reversal.
What is to say that it was not Corypheus with his level of expertise to prevent the Orb to explode?Because from what i remember he did in fact unlocked the Orb and didn't make it explode until the Inquisitor stole it from him it was the Inquisitor who caused the explosion.
The explosion was planned to be strong enough to kill a powerful mage like Corypheus it couldn't have been too weak.
Perhaps That's a matter of miscommunication here.
Forget Corypheus immortality and even remove the Inquisitor from the equation even without these two things there were high chances for him to fail.
Incorrect.
My whole point is that Solas plan was extremely flawed in concept even if we do not take into the equation the two variables that he did not predict which were the Inquisitor and the immortality of the magister.
What proof you have to say that the Orb was able to release more than one anchor?
From Corypheus he couldn't have gained it because it was permanent.
This doesn't make sense because doesn't match anything i said which pertain the probability for SOlas to gain the anchor from the Orb not of what Corypheus did with the Divine.
yes my fact(and not assumption)is flawed according to your own flawed perspective and is more valuable because is a fact,anchor first explosion later.
That seems to be what happens in the Inquisitor's case, yes. However the two happened so close together that the two events may be considered concurrent (seems to be that way in the cutscene). But we do not know if the anchor was meant to be bestowed at all. Or at least, bestowed to the point where the recipient did not immediately die.
From what we can tell, Solas (who is as of now the only source on how the orb operates) expected only the explosion to be released from the orb's awakening. He was planning to obtain the mark, after he had reclaimed the orb once the explosion had settled. The mark being bestowed near the same time as the explosion seemed to be a complete surprise. That the bearer of the mark surviving was yet another suprise.
So while I will agree that the "anchor + explosion" was the case for the Inquisitor, Solas's surprise on the matter make me think that is not the result that would usually happen under similar circumstances.
Additionally Justina was sucked into the fade thus dodged the explosion she was not invested by it that's why she survived,that she survived isn't proof of anything.
I'm not saying you are wrong on this (on the contrary, it may be me) but was it ever confirmed that Divine Justinia was alive by the time she entered the fade? The opening sequence of the game showed the spirit Justinia (implying Justinia already died), but the quest Here Lies the Abyss showed a living mortal Justinia helping us out of the fade. The two scenes seem contradictory.
I'm not saying you are wrong on this (on the contrary, it may be me) but was it ever confirmed that Divine Justinia was alive by the time she entered the fade? The opening sequence of the game showed the spirit Justinia (implying Justinia already died), but the quest Here Lies the Abyss showed a living mortal Justinia helping us out of the fade. The two scenes seem contradictory.
Yes, the spirit confirms the Divine dies as the Inquisitor escapes the Fade the first time, when she gets left behind.
Here's the dialogue with the spirit where it's confirmed the Divine dies in the Fade:
https://youtu.be/6h4jk_6VoHE?t=3m28s
Next question: if Solas can transfer the anchor from a hand to his own, why didn't he do it as soon as Inquisition ended, before the Trespasser dlc?
Ummm. That's a good question...
Maybe...he doesn't want the anchor anymore and wants to take down the veil another way now that he believes the people of Thedas have worth, and he wants to double-check everything first?
Maybe it was a matter of how he couldn't take it.
Coryphaeus also tried to remove the anchor (with the orb, no less) and he couldn't manage it. He said it was "soiled" or somesuch. Which may imply that the Inquisitor 'imprinted' on it somehow, making it useless to near everyone but his/herself.
For Solas to remove it, there seemed to be something of a preparation for it (maybe. I could be wrong). There was that green light explosion near the elvhen tower at the beginning at the DLC, and several reactions toward magical artifacts as the story progressed. He also said "luring you here gave me the chance to save you", which may imply that something about the crossroads, or the events within them, may have had a hand in making the anchor removable. But this is all conjecture.
Yes, the spirit confirms the Divine dies as the Inquisitor escapes the Fade the first time, when she gets left behind.
Ah! Thank you! That question has been nagging at me for a while.
oh
Wait
Actually the anchor doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter if the anchor is "wasted" prior to the explosion. It's the orb that matters. That's why Solas is sad when the orb breaks. Duh
Very good point.
Ah! Thank you! That question has been nagging at me for a while.
No problemo.
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