'Approval' and Respect and the Dread Wolf [Spoilers]

So idea came to me recently that I gotta commit to writing or its gonna bother me.  It's gonna ramble in the beginning, but I swear I'm going somewhere:

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, there is a companion character (who I won't name, so as not to spoil games in other franchises, at least) who ends up pulling a sudden yet inevitable betrayal of your player character.  It's telegraphed from pretty early on, but one of the things that I think is interesting about it is that I've been part of discussions with other players of that game who were disappointed that said betrayal really was inevitable.  Among them seemed to be many who felt that s/he should stick around if you got that certain companion's approval high enough.  "But s/he liked me!", they respond, when forced to lose a companion they'd worked hard to keep on their good side.  And yet, if you go back and look at the things s/he approved of, it was generally choices that made the betrayal easier, or overlooking potentially suspicious actions that s/he was involved in, whether intentional or unintentional.  Essentially, s/he didn't like your character, s/he simply approved of the choices your character made, because it was convenient for that character's own endgame plans.

And that, in turn, brings me to three little words that I see so often in Dragon Age Inquisition:

Now, some of this might just be excused by "different writers", but if you actually think about Solas' attitudes in the time leading up to and after the game, this is actually kind of surprising, in retrospect.  Solas has already resolved himself to do away with modern Thedas as we know it before we even met him, and no matter how much he gets buttered up, he remains resolved to it even after he leaves us, and yet he still shows approval every time the Inquisitor shows curiosity, or every time s/he proves to be more than just the unimaginative drone he'd characterized everyone else to be.  This is quite a reversal from the above example from another of Bioware's games.  If I think of it from Solas' perspective, I end up wondering why his (dis)approval doesn't work in the opposite way.  It seems to me like he should approve every time that Quizzie acts like a brute or fails to show any interest in the inherent magic of the world, because that should make it that much easier to justify eliminating the present in order to resurrect the past.  In that regard, the more he likes the Inquisitor, the more he should disapprove of what s/he does or says.

So if we eliminate the meta-possibility (and for the sake of fun, I'mma do that), then how do we account for the contradiction in Solas behavior?  Part of me wants to think that Solas is just the sort that gets caught up in the moment.  His friendship (or more) with the Inquisitor enchants him to the point that he forgets the weight of his deeds, essentially.  I kind of like this idea because it shows the supposedly-meticulous "trickster god" to be a much more fickle individual who can be driven by momentary emotion...basically, he's not so above it all when compared to the short-lived and short-sighted modern mortals he seeks to wrest control of the world from.

Another character-related possibility is that Solas is just a lot like Blackwall in that he sort of relies on his feelings of guilt.  The game draws a lot of parallels between the two, so perhaps the most likely and the most simple explanation is that Solas wants to be reminded of how terrifying his aims are.  The regret for his actions is as essential to him as a way to justify them.  This is probably the simplest, and therefore the most likely explanation, but perhaps because it is so simple, I hope it's not the case.  It just feels a little too banal to me.

I think the most interesting idea, though, is if he really does come to ultimately change his mind during his time with the Inquisition and perhaps even decides to seek an alternative...maybe he developed a different plan for how to use the Orb, only to fall back on the destruction plan in despair when the only artifact he knew of that could accomplish that alternative.  That could provide an interesting storyline in the next game for those who want to redeem him versus those who want to stop him at all costs...both are racing him to a second Orb, with the latter seeking to destroy it before he can use it, and the former trusting him and accepting the possibility of an alternative that can bring down the Veil without bringing about the end of Thedas as we know it.

I still don't think I want Solas and his plans to be the primary focus of DA4, but I admit, after thinking about the possibilities this creates for his character, I'm curious to see where the writers go with it.