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

I know you're speaking from the perspective of your character, but to address that particular viewpoint, it's not like the Dalish can co-existence alongside Andrastian humans when the Chantry outlawed their religion, templars pursue them for their mages, and humans are known to attack them when they stay too long in one region; it's one of the things I've never understood about the criticism of the Dalish being nomadic. It's self-preservation. The only humans who were known not to attack the Dalish outright were the Rivaini who followed the Natural Order. Gaider once said that "the Rivaini city of Llomerryn is known to have a semi-permanent Dalish encampment on its outskirts, and trade with the elves for their crafts is encouraged." What 'future' are the Dalish supposed to move towards when they're criminals because of their religious and cultural views? Even Merrill points out that if there was a new elven homeland, "half of Thedas" would likely be attacking them.

Really, the Dalish way of life is one of survival in a world that fears and hates them. Given how elves are seen as "less than people" (as Duncan admits to the elven protagonist) I've also found it strange that some criticize the Dalish for being proud of their heritage. Following that mindset of loving your people even as the rest of the world wants to dehumanize you for it, it also stands to reason that a Dalish protagonist would easily point out that vallaslin doesn't mean what it meant in Arlathan - it hasn't meant that for generations, for centuries.

As we know characters go through various iterations throughout development, therefore I don't think the accusations of 'whitewashing' Sera or Solas is valid - *especially* that in the beginning Vivienne was supposed to be white and they switched her as well (and Iron Bull initially was supposed to be a woman... oh, and have no left hand instead of no left eye).

Besides... considering just how polarizing Solas is, I can already imagine the roar of people accusing BW of casting another POC as a (potentially) villainous character who may or may not have been designed to ultimately fail or be defeated. I've also seen quite a few shouts at Bioware for Sera being a lesbian AND a polarizing character herself.

All in all, it only shows that neither Bioware nor anyone else really can please everyone - there will always be people who are unhappy, for valid reasons and... less so valid.

I generally agree and this would be incredibly hard to overcome in real life. But this game also has an element of changing the world order and bringing disparate people together rather quickly. So wanting to move towards breaking down barriers on all sides (mostly starting with moving towards making the Chantry more progressive, like if you choose Leliana) is actually a somewhat feasible option. But like I said, that's what makes it a fantasy game. It's not that Lavellan thinks they can just waltz up and be happy and dandy with the humans, but she wants her people to be open to it if the world changes enough to where it's possible.

My Lavellan mostly doesn't think clinging to the glory of the past that is revealed as not even being entirely true as the Dalish know it isn't a good way to move forward. It's not that she thinks all of their heritage and modern culture is useless.  And she thinks they should focus on the history they make now, like helping to stop the Blight, and take their pride in that. She just can't glorify the elven gods and all of ancient elven culture anymore and the vallaslin remind her of doing that. That's just her point of view, though and she wouldn't fault other elves for seeing it as reclamation. However, she is purposefully played as a somewhat naive idealist so that factors in. She also personally feels a little trapped within the Dalish and that factors into how she justifies things and reacts when she learns the truth.

Revas kept them. She never really believed in the elven gods. She is kind of an atheist agonistic. She will be quick to say there is no Maker if asked directly by someone she had no intentions of manipulating. She doesn't believe that there is Maker because that a human thing, but will say that she believes in the Creators because that's an elven thing. Faith and religion is nothing but politics, identity politics, and a pathway to power through manipulation to her. She never really had any faith and can't really understand it. She is focused entirely on the material world and doesn't have an ounce of spirituality in her. So she wasn't as hurt by the revelation as my past religious Lavellan was. 
Not much disillusionment other then "Wow, the ancient elves and Mythal are assholes who are not going to do shit for us. Fuck you all." Honestly, she doesn't really care that much about the past. They were slave markings in the past, well they're not now.

She really kept her vallasline because she spent so long trying to get.Revas was a Circle mage who ran away from the Ferelden Circle Tower, crossed the Waking Seas, hiked through the wilderness, and spent nearly a decade trying to prove her elfyness so she could get her vallaslin. It means to her a rejection of the human world and the Chantry. Even before she met clan Lavellan, she had tattooed her face with supposed dalish marking, which were really just Chasind markings, all to give the middle finger to the Chantry. She's kind of the anti-Sera, they both faced discrimination for being elves, but while Sera tried mitigate this by distancing her self from anything elfy, Revas did the exact opposite. 

Also, even at the start of the Inquisition after she was called the Herald Of Andraste, she knew that was probably never going home again. Being believed to be the Herald of Andraste would give her some influence and power to help elves. There was no way she would not exploit that opportunity. Also there were already people in the clan who did not respect her due to her being a flat ear in their eyes, even after a decade studying the old ways they still did not fully accept her as one of them. Mostly due to her position as Keeper's First, as the majority weren't keen on having a flat ear being the leader of the clan someday. Being held as Herald of Andraste would probably encourage that sentiment.

I have to ask - is anyone who is not alabaster white is POC for you? Because I live in a country that is - sadly, due to our tumultuous history - 99% homogeneous and white and I know many people who fit Briala's description like a glove, and some of them have about the color of skin they chose for SOME concept arts for Solas and Sera (like my brother in law - has a skin color about the same as concept Sera). Yet they're all caucasian, so do many even more dark-skinned folks from southern Europe.

I'm sorry, but I have to say that for me the whole situation seems quite forced.

Yep, and with a Dalish elf being the Inquisitor and making such a big change, there's more chance for a new world order and brighter future for the Dalish than ever before. I also think it will eventually be an option to reclaim the Dales as a Dalish nation, though possibly not until the last game. And if that means interacting with humans and other races and being more in the fore alongside them, my Lavellan wants her people to be ready for and accept that despite them having ample reason to dislike the idea. She's more idealist about it than she should be, though.

And what I mean by her thinking their heritage and culture is still worthwhile is exactly about what you said. She's proud of who they are now, not of the past they glorify. She takes pride in their nomadic culture despite its sad origin and likes moving from place to place, she thinks their particular magic is great and loves the connection with nature, etc. It's just the preoccupation with Arlathan that she wants to move past, and the vallaslin still represent that to her, much more than they represent slavery. She also doesn't like the looking down on city elves and connects that to preoccupation with the past too, so that's another factor.

Your definition of diversity is meaningless and if you continue to dwell on skin color, as Djimon Hounsou obviously does (and obviously didn't teach his child to not focus on), then we'll never achieve the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.  who dreamt of a world where people will "not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

If we're looking at each other's humanity, we're not focused on skin color. Thus, children will stop noticing if Spider Man is white, black, yellow, or purple. 

Er, these kinds of arguments can go on for pages and pages if we let them and almost always get heated. Maybe we should tone it down a bit?

I agree. Even at this point this is just running around in circles.

Actually, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged diversity in television, which is why he was a fan of the original Star Trek and encouraged Nichelle Nichols (who played Lieutenant Uhura) not to quit the show. “He said, ‘Don’t you understand what this man [Roddenberry] has achieved? For the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing and dance, yes, but who can go into space, who can be lawyers and teachers, who can be professors — who are in this day, yet you don’t see it on television until now.'” Diversity in entertainment wasn't something that King dismissed like you're suggesting.

True, some have issues with Andrastian elves, but there are plenty of cases of the Dalish caring about Andrastian elves as well; Aneirin was rescued when they found him as a boy on the verge of death, Lanaya was rescued and they offered to return her to her city or a human settlement if she so wished, and the City Elf Origin makes reference to the Dalish specifically leaving an Andrastian elf alone during a confrontation with other Andrastians. Even Merrill chastised Fenris (who is as foreign to the alienage as a Tevinter elf as she is as a Dalish elf) when she felt he didn't seem to care about the Andrastian elves, and outright referred to them as "our people".