The Blanketfort (crying and throwing up) - The Official Solas Thread [Spoilers]

Yea, but the presence of the wyvern is a bug, not a feature

Clearly it isn't supposed to be there (given that it breaks everything), even if we don't reach the pond prior to that scene, and we certainly don't start it with Lavellan and Solas romantically slaying a wyvern in case it hasn't yet been slain at that point, lol.

(But it also proves that they don't just copy assets, but transport models to specific location in order to record the scene, even if technically the location is supposed to be somewhere else.)

Nevermind that to reach the pond we basically have to go through red lyrium site and as much as we can stand near or even jump on red lyrium as part of ludonarrative dissonance between narration and gameplay, in-game I don't think either Lavellan or Solas are willing to spend any time anywhere close to it, unless they want to go crazy.

Also - we know that Skyhold was an elven site at a time, nor the grove is uniquely elvhen in entire game. We get to see same elvhen scultpture assets reused all over the world and likely some of them hide in crags around Skyhold, just like patches of green land (none of that, including temperate climate inside of Skyhold, should be possible IRL... but this is not Earth, and we do know that Skyhold is a Special Magical Place Of Great Importance).

While it's hilarious, I think it's just way too much of a stretch to make Lavellan go all the way to Crestwood (nevermind that it's a bit... whut? We were in Skyhold just a second ago! At first I thought we're back in Fade again... which is actually a faint possibility?), even if Solas had all intentions in the world to tell her the truth and, in his mind, it required a fitting setting. Like I said, I'm fairly sure that the place is way closer to Skyhold, especially that it's established that there are green groves just outside of the castle.

From my perspective, it was a different location. I mean, ultimately I didn't care about the fact that 'it's Haven' - as in: recognizable asset - but the fact that they went there to mirror the first shot of Inquisitor (aside from CC/Fade sequence) in the game, clearly for symbolic reasons.

Of course, it also makes us ask question of Inquisitor's involvement in next title. Like, sure... we're going full circle, but not in a sense that we're ending their story that way? Because we go there specifically to see Inky planning their next move, and it stands in such contrast to them saying that Trespasser is there to 'end Inquisitor's chapter', since - clearly - Inky's not done yet?

I lean towards that interpretation too. The Inquisitor and Inquisition as we know them (because 'shadow Inquisition' is shown to be active after Trespasser, in Knight Errant comics) are no more, especially after Inky lost the Anchor.

But what that means for the character remains to be seen. It'd be strange to just push them aside given all the hints, or their relationship (be it negative or positive) with Solas, or their declaration that it's them who are going to stop/redeem him, or that they're going to save the world... again, but as much as I'm rooting for things like dual-protag route, I'm not confident anything like that could happen and perhaps the ending to their story is entirely different from what I think it's shaping up to be... wouldn't be the first time Bioware subverts expectations.

I mean purely from a practical perspective it's extremely dumb to go all the way to Haven (which btw, wasn't it buried in a rockslide?) to do your planning when there are endlessly more convenient locations. It isn't even like it's particularly secret so that as a reason doesn't make sense.

I like to imagine someone asking the Inquisitor why they're here and s/he does jazz hands and goes "THEMATIC APPROPRIATENESS!"

Yea, but they'd have to make extensive work to uncover that thing or even dig tunnels, which - without modern tools - would be immediately apparent.

The exposed tunnel wasn't connected to the chantry. It was a defunct mine outside Haven proper. You'd have to dig through rock to reach anywhere close to the building.

Also - that excavation war table mission? It wasn't excavation, they cleared some area for the monument.

Practicality is not exactly an issue though.  From a practical standpoint Skyhold sucks.  It's in the mountains which is a terrible place to get to and from (especially in the winter), there are no roads and have you seen the gate?  Is there even a path up to the main gate?  There's the bridge that goes out to a tower (barbican) and the tower stands on top of a smaller peak and ... where's the path up to that?  How do you even get carts of goods up there?  There would have to be a giant lift in the barbican.  Secure but talk about impractical.

Haven is actually quite central as it's between Ferelden and Orlais - yes, coming from the Orlesian side you have to travel through a pass, easiest way being through Jader, but if the location was in Orlais then people coming from Ferelden would have the same issue.  A coastal location would have been more convenient for travel purposes.  Haven as a location may not be secret but it's probably deserted other than some random pilgrim.  No one lives there anymore that's for sure.  They can't use Skyhold - that's way too obvious.  Solas apparently has spies all over; I doubt he's recalled all of them so they'd want to stay away from any towns.  They can't just point to a random place in the wilderness on a map.  Maps are inaccurate and without GPS or landmarks how are you going to find the random spot you picked?  Especially if everyone is traveling separately.  They can't use any of the keeps the Inquisition once held - Griffon Wing really IS out of the way being in the Western Approach and it's entirely possible Orlais and Ferelden have sent troops to hold the former Inquisition keeps in their respective territories.  The biggest issue I'd see is if Leliana is the Divine but then she'd have trouble going anywhere unnoticed and it's not like she can just disappear for long periods of time.

So you'd need a relatively central location that your people can find and few people are going to be.  Obviously a lot of places fit this bill.  Haven is one of them.  I would also imagine it's a temporary situation, especially if operations are going to shift to a different country.

And after having typed all that out and putting that much thought into it I realise we're probably putting way too much thought into this lol.

Do ya'll think Briala would go for what Solas is selling? Whatever the specifics of his message entails it seems to appeal to a variety of elves so I'm assuming it isn't "Help me kill everything probably including you!" He seems to admire her if you talk with him after WEWH and IIRC he mentions that he took control of the eluvians from her personally but that doesn't have to be mutually exclusive with recruiting her. I suppose it depends on how gullible Briala is, which I would say is "not very" but who knows. If she does go for it and you leave her puppeting Gaspard you'd have basically delivered him an empire. That'd be bad.

I was thinking about Gaspie cutting the strings, the blackmail she has on him feels like it has an expiration date anyway. If he realizes she's lost the eluvians and the Orlesians have gotten used to his rule she'd be in trouble. That being said, by the end of Trespasser Gaspard is 70. That's pretty old, poisoning him to encourage ineffectual leadership could have her being instituted as regent depending on how effectively she's used her time and influence when she had the eluvians (ie to stave off objections by the nobility with gathered blackmail or assassins placed in their household). The optimal solution would be getting Gaspard to spawn, killing him and taking over as the child's regent.

Also, follow up question: what's the popular opinion on the nature of Flemeth and Solas' relationship? What exactly transpired at the end of Inquisition?

Yeah Solas strikes me as the kind where evaluation of a person/your feelings towards them and what should be done to them are two entirely distinct cognitive processes. Also the only reason for his admiration is cuz her story echoes part of his own because of course that would be the basis of his admiration lol. 

You choose to believe what you want.  I'll choose to believe they were back in Haven.  Never seen anyone who liked to be right as much as you.  :ulikeit:

I think he'd be 60 when Trespasser ends?
My current theory is that we have to look at something between relationship of Celene and Briala and Leliana and Justinia for clues (given that out of all characters those two also seem to mirror Solas the closest). Probably more the latter. 

I might be wrong, but I get more a mother-son/mentor-apprentice vibe than I get any romantic stuff between them.

All I know is that the post-credit scene is brief, but emotional. The closeness doesn't seem feigned. He didn't surprise Mythal with his attack, from dialogue it'd seem that she knew the blow was coming and allowed for it to happen.

I'm pretty sure Lilyenachaos isn't trying to "ad hom" or "sneer".  It seems more like honest exasperation.  I mean, sometimes you really seem to like to argue things to death.  Honestly I tend to do that as well.  Just can't help myself lol.  And it's not necessarily a bad thing.  Also I don't think Ladyiolanthe was trying to start anything; I think she just wanted to point out something about DA since we're all so news starved.