Sanshee @teamsanshee Happy Valentines Day, folks! Just a reminder while you're waiting for Senpai to notice you: Our @dragonage Inquisition Romance Coasters are still on sale (along with all the stuff for our moving sale) so pick some up while you can!
I was more interested in her much older "I hate Solas" post. I especially agree with this quote: Which is how I always took it.
Is this my cue to extend my crackpot Cole theories to Solas? Because if it is:
Solas became powerful precisely because he’s a little tone deaf.
Being (probably) a spirit of rebellion, oppressive regimes give him more chances to embody his emotion and grow stronger. But since he’s so into freedom, he’d never install an oppressive regime on purpose.
So instead of intentionally creating the conditions that lead to empire, he had to repeatedly stumble into unintended consequences edhis-first. For that, a dash of tone-deafness works wonders.
His conversation with Sera about the cyclical nature of revolution is a direct mirror to Justice’s conversation with Isabela about the cyclical nature of vengeance. In both cases, the spirit(?) agrees with the assessment, but it’s as if he’s hearing it for the first time. He’s benefited from that cycle of never-quite-fixed, but isn’t explicitly aware of it.
He has to make mistakes, has to provoke and misjudge people. Because he wouldn’t perpetuate that cycle on purpose... but that cycle is what made him so powerful.
Eh, I can agree with this. With a caveat.
I remember reading way-back-when some essay about how Solas is a figure of destruction. And to a degree that's true. Rebellion is an inherently destructive thing. But rebellion (And by extension, Solas' character) doesn't stop there. It's something that destroys so that better things can grow. In it's positive aspect (It's spirit aspect, let's say.) it's destruction and creation, because it's whole purpose is to make way for something better. To be constructive.
And you can see shades of that constructive aspect in Solas' character. Cole hints at it with the line "He wants to give wisdom, not orders," and we see it in Solas' own frustration with how people reject the knowledge he tries to offer. He wants to be some sort of teacher or sage, which is an inherently constructive thing, since it fosters growth and learning - fosters that better world that rebellion strives to create. It's a positive aspect, but it's one that Solas has been denied, both because of the people in the world who reject his knowledge, and because he, himself, is often too cynical and disillusioned to try giving it.
Now, if a demon is a spirit corrupted, then rebellion corrupted is what you've laid out here. It's endless destruction with no constructive follow-up. It needs things to be broken, because it's forgotten how to fix them, so it's only purpose then is to throw them out and hope something better just springs up. And again, we can see that in Solas' character - his initial rebellion of tearing down the Veil might've succeeded, if he had been there afterward. But the enormity of the Veil put him to sleep for millennia, and he was denied that constructive follow-up - denied his purpose. It's why he seems so beleaguered about it despite the fact that, if he were a spirit, this is probably what his purpose would be. Because his purpose has been twisted, and Solas himself isn't sure of how to carry it out anymore.
The problem isn't rebellion by itself, but when it's is denied either one of its two aspects. Rebellion that isn't willing to get it's hands dirty is ineffectual. Rebellion that's too willing to get it's hands dirty becomes locked in a cycle of destruction. Being a spirit is about finding a happy medium where you can be effective but reasonable.
As for Solas being a spirit of Pride instead of rebellion: Why can't he be both? Isn't Nightmare just a particularly powerful Fear demon? So Rebellion is just a particularly powerful form of Pride. After all, it's Pride that tells you to not suffer indignity, which is what oppression often is.
No Leliana? No Merrill? No Isabela? No Zevran? No Fenris? No Cassandra??
What the shit, BioWare?
Alistair is missing, too, but Varric makes the cut? Granted, he's a lovable character and one lots of people wanted to romance, but if we're focusing on the most lovable characters then this really should have been 20 seconds of Dog.
"Kneel before the Lord Dragon, or you will be knelt." 21 Feb 2019 at 6:59am - It has not been forgotten. It will not be forgiven. We've now met seven times... Revenge is ice cream - Serza, April 2020 Also known as Mike, David, Scott or Bruce
I'd be less salty if Merrill wasn't constantly overlooked when it came to merchandise, dialogue, etc. It's like they're ashamed of her existence.
Does kind of suck, but not much to be done about it. Merrill, Zevran, Blackwall, Sebastian, Josephine... even Sera has like, no official merch. Even hubs for unofficial merch like Etsy are overloaded with Fenris/Solas/Anders/Cullen/Alistair stuff and 2% everyone else. :DD:
I reeaaaly doubt it has anything to do with shame, though. Just popularity (or percieved popularity).
If that bint ruins our honeymoon, I will wear her Qun for a boot! Let's wrap it up, love.
Hey, I don't blame them. If I had any talent I'd be making shit I like, too.
I really wish I could draw like some of my fav fanartists. :sob: It would be so nice to make some of my mental images a reality. (I know it's not that "easy" for actual artists, but I can barely draw at all, so...)
Mountains. Cold. "Let's bring Dorian!" It's good to be Champion!
It was pretty clear to me that this was the creator-of-that-GIF-art's favorite chracters, not a popularity poll of all DA characters.
It's a direct tweet, not a retweet, from the official Bioware account. While I do agree that it's the artists favorites, by virtue of being from the official account, it becomes a statement of Bioware's favorites, whether intended or not. I'm sure they would have included every possible romancable character if they could have, but there was probably a length limit on the video/gif.
Last Edit: Feb 15, 2018 16:31:32 GMT by PapaCharlie9
Inquisitor: Is that innuendo? Sera: No, it's at the front!
I'd be less salty if Merrill wasn't constantly overlooked when it came to merchandise, dialogue, etc. It's like they're ashamed of her existence.
Does kind of suck, but not much to be done about it. Merrill, Zevran, Blackwall, Sebastian, Josephine... even Sera has like, no official merch. Even hubs for unofficial merch like Etsy are overloaded with Fenris/Solas/Anders/Cullen/Alistair stuff and 2% everyone else.
I reeaaaly doubt it has anything to do with shame, though. Just popularity (or percieved popularity).
The weird thing is, that theory doesn't even make sense with the characters they chose. No Fenris, no Anders, no Alistair.
Looking at it again, every single DA character is from Inquisition. Even Morrigan and Varric, who appeared originally in other games, are shown with their DAI pictures. If anything, I think the person who put this together felt that the art quality of the previous games wasn't good enough for this graphic and went solely with the new crowd. That still doesn't explain the absences of Cassandra or Alistair, or the inclusion of Varric, but I think that explains their choices better than "popularity." (to spare anyone disappointment, they really should have gone with 20 seconds of Dog pics! )