I Didn't Want To Romance Solas At First Bc Of All The Angst But The More I Played The More I Realized

I didn't want to romance Solas at first bc of all the angst but the more I played the more I realized how fucked up the inquisitor Lavellan is even without romancing Solas. Especially in case of a mage...It feels like the game is punishing you for siding with mages and elves or being one yourself. Your companions don't like you, you lose your faith, your entire history is one big lie, you can even lose your entire clan. Both the mage rebellion and the dalish are constantly demonized. You have to listen to racist or pro templar bullshit. No one understands you except for Solas who leaves in the end. I gave his romance another try and oh god. This is like ultimate loneliness and isolation. I had no idea why would someone like Solas fall in love with a modern elf but now I know why. Because Lavellan is like the only one who can see a real person in him. In modern Thedas, he is nothing but another pair of pointy ears. An apostate. An elven hobo. During the days of ancient elves he was nothing but a title. The Dread Wolf. A symbol, not a real person. And literally the same thing can be applied to Lavellan who is being crushed by the weight of their title. Who is being devoured by the narrative until there is nothing left of them. They are so alike, damn. Inquisition companions mostly act like a group of coworkers and Solas doesn't trust even his own agents (hi Felassan). The game ridicules a player for certain opinions and Solas conditionally says he was called a liar, a fool, a madman by both his enemies and his allies alike for trying to share his knowledge. I used to think Solas romance was kinda empty and unsatisfying and holy shit how wrong I was. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Solavellan to me is about finally finding a person who understands you under the shittiest circumstances possible after accepting that you will probably die alone. And then...Being completely destroyed by your own sense of duty. With all the Solas hate in this fandom I kinda forgot he actually...Cares about Lavellan? It wasn't an easy decision to leave. And it was even harder for Solas to not let Lavellan join his cause. He had to get rid of his own humanity for the sake of other elves and he doesn't want his vhenan to do the same. And the most tragic thing about this, that there is not much humanity left of Lavellan anyway. They are tired and lost and alone. Inquisition has changed them, they can't go back and pretend that nothing happened. They are not the same person they used to be. Solas greatest fear is dying alone but in the end of the game my Lavellan felt like they are the one who is slowly dying alone.

Also Solas is bisexual to me I don`t care what bioware say.

I survived through rainstorms, sandstorms

I fought the war, now it's time to go home

It's time to go home...

The ultimate siblings: Isaac and Carver Hawke, young Leandra and Gamlen Amell. Honestly Leandra is such an underappreciated character. In my silly little headcanon she was a bard. She killed a templar with a kitchen knife once. My red Hawke inherited his aggresive/direct personality from her, not from Malcolm who was a very chill dude actually. Leandra taught her oldest son to murder knife people and Hawke later named his daughter after her <3

I love "fugitives together" ending so much. People call Anders romance depressing for very wrong reasons. Like oh, you think chantry explosion was sad? How about Hawke's whole friend group calling his best friend and lover mad for literally the same things Hawke stands for? How about mage Hawke's friends having no problems with templars, the same people, who would gladly imprison Hawke for life or even execute him for apostasy? I think people idealize Kirkwall gang way too much. Varric occasionally drinks with templars and has almost zero principles. Aveline helps templars to arrest apostates. And Fenris...I don't know how much patience a mage needs to listen to "all mages are bad magic itself is bad but you're different" for 6 years. The part where you can kill him in the Gallows for trying to murder you is kinda bruh too. And Isabela doesn't care what side you choose in the end. Isn't it depressing, to know that your friends don't care even one bit about people like you dying and being tortured literally every day? I don't like "fix it" headcanons where Anders warms up to certain companions because why would he? That's, like, the whole point of the game. Playing a mage IS isolating. It WILL make you look unlikable to others if you're vocal enough about the oppression. Because most people tend to ignore all the problems that do not concern them directly and they don't like when the said problems are being pushed into their faces. I can't speak for other players but for my mage Hawke, life in Kirkwall was awful. Like on the level where you think taking your own life is not that bad awful. Anders and Merrill were the only people who didn't make him feel even worse for being a mage. I don't think being fugitive is sad. What saddens me the most, is that only on the run with Anders Hawke realizes that he is finally happy. Because running from authorities is way better than running from your own nature. Its not sad when you and your lover are alone against the whole world. It`s only sad when the unjust world breaks your spirit and you accept it as it is without fighting.

This!!! You're 100% correct, bioware has serious problems with ableism. I would also like to add the constant infantilisation of Merrill and the way bioware treat Anders and Justice. People belittle Merrill for not grasping social norms, both characters and players think she is stupid just because of it. And Justice is treated like a mental disorder, not even a person. Anders is constantly called insane, and his fight for the mages in considered only a symptom of his "insanity"... Also, Solas. One of the two companions who you can slap in dai. I wonder why him specifically? The way fandom calls him delusional egg makes me sick. Can neurodivergent and mentally ill people play a single game where they are not demonized or belittled? I like all these characters. They are awesome. But their portrayal and how people interpret it is depressing. Merrill is not stupid, she is the most intelligent character in da2. She is a grown woman, not a child your character supposed to babysit. Pls fandom stop it, she is not your uwu baby, she's the keeper's first. I don't even know where to start with Anders. He's bipolar coded but I can also see bpd symptoms in him (I am borderline myself, so that means a lot to me). Thanks Jennifer Hepler for saying mentally ill people deserve to be abused and gaslighted. I loathe Anders rivalmance, watching just a video of it legit made me cry. Reminds me of a classic gaslighting tactic - if mentally ill person is not OK with being abused just tell them it's a symptom of their mental illness and they are overreacting. That "romance" is so vile, I just can't. I adore Anders. I like all the little bipolar and borderline things. I like that he's passionate about fighting injustices. The mages plight reminds me of real life transgender problems. I live under literal dictatorship where my entire existence is illegal and I am stripped of many civil rights. And when I hear people calling Anders insane for refusing to accept things like that...Just because he is possessed which is a metaphor for mental illness...Just ugh, thanks I hate it. The way Hawke speaks about him in dai is so dehumanizing and disgusting. Can we please not deny mentally ill people personhood? Solas portrayal is a bit of fresh air. And who could have thought that without all the ableist stuff people wouldn't even recognize the autistic character as, well, autistic? The idea that neurodivergent character needs to be disliked in order to be really neurodivergent needs to die.

Sorry if I went too far from the original post. Got too invested.

So, apparently Cole is canonly supposed to be autistic? Or he was based on autistic people? I haven't found the actual comment, but I guess a dev said so.

I... uh, have thoughts on that. None of them are particularly flattering.

Sera is also coded autistic, but very few people ever mention Solas's incredibly clear and accurate neurodivergent coding. Why is that I wonder? (That's sarcasm, btw.)

Could it be the attitude that it's fine to portray some of the potentially less awesome traits of autistic and ADHD folks but it’s just not okay to portray us as intelligent, standoffish, deep, elegant characters like Solas? Sera and Cole are both some of the least accepted people in DAI. Both by the characters and the fans. I'm professionally diagnosed and I'm far more like Solas than either Cole or Sera. It's part of why I identify with him so much.

Look at all the shit Cassandra and Vivienne spout about Cole!

Look at how Sera is treated ffs. Ick.

Bioware really needs to hire a disability consultant. The ableism in this series borders on obscene. I don't think they're doing it to be mean about it. If anything, I think they might be trying to be inclusive.

They've, so far, failed miserably. As a disabled disability consultant and advocate? That sucks. Rather a lot.

I love the series. I've played the games more than once now, and I'm still very capable of noting and pointing out the flaws. Critique doesn't even usually mean someone hates something. It means they love it and would like to see it fixed.