It's literally been years since i posted straight up fanart so here's a few 3/4 shoulders up pics of canon characters lol

Can I say something that blows my mind about Varric and Solas’ relationship? Imo Varric was THIS close to actually convincing Solas. we all talk about romanced Lavellan almost getting him to admit everything and possibly give up his plans, but we neeeeddddd to give Varric props like this man was really about to convince a whole ass god (literally named Pride) that he is wrong, that going through with some self destructive attempt at rectifying ur mistakes by destroying the world is Not the proper way to process ur grief, and Varric doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Varric really is the party bard fr the charisma score on this man………..

yes I’m talking about the man on the island banter. Every time I hear it I tear my hair out because VARRIC you almost HAD HIM he was CRUMBLING I just KNOW IT

Was just talking about this with @kaija-rayne-author but I find the friendship between Solas and Varric genuinely heartwarming.

Solas never argues with Varric like he does with other companions. They have disagreements, but these are always respectful disagreements and often end with Solas admitting he’ll need to reconsider things.

Solas has also read Varric’s book and enjoyed it. He calls him ‘Master Tethras’ which implies a level of respect we don’t really see him show for other companions. They even joke around sometimes, which again Solas doesn’t generally do with the others.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Varric is implied to be a fairly major character in the next game. He’s arguably seen more of the real Solas than anyone—apart from the Inquisitor—and knows that Solas can be a deeply caring and more importantly has the capacity to be reasoned with. And in the content we’ve seen since DAI it’s clear that Varric is as concerned with saving Solas as he is saving the world.

It’s also interesting that, despite being aware that Varric is trying to stop him, Solas hasn’t really taken any action against him. He leaves him little notes instead politely asking him to stop. It’s weirdly endearing.

God I love these two.

i am thinking… about how a high approval lavellan really easily ends up relating to solas the way briala related to felassan. and how i actually like this much more than the romance route because it’s just as interesting and possibly even sadder.

lavellan doesn’t HAVE to see him this way, but they're given room to decide that solas is their mentor in an environment where they’ve otherwise been completely cut off from their culture-group. you have the opportunity to ask him for advice on just about anything, and the transmission of knowledge/history forms the bedrock of any positive relationship between himself and the player character. the dalish have limited written records, so most lore is passed down orally from keepers and hahrens to younger members of a clan. when solas starts rambling about the fade, it’s not just some guy telling stories, but an older elf sharing knowledge with his protege that would otherwise be lost with his death. he is fulfilling the responsibilities of a hahren in the same way felassan fulfilled them for briala, and he’s doing so while secretly the most literal hahren you could find. solas can occupy the role of an elder, but he is also among the oldest elves in the setting: not only a hahren, but the most hahren.

To me, the really intimidating part of Solas’ theme song is that the game introduces it so slowly - first you only hear these thrumming, oppressive war drums (and you didn’t know why - why are there drums? Why??). When you fight the Saarebas, strings come in to lead the drums. 

Only when you start fighting the last boss of the game, do you finally hear Solas’ real, complete theme song. Something like a metaphor for hunting down the pieces to the mystery behind the character himself.

I put the three versions of the song together to make a version where one builds up into the next, the way it does in the game. 6-minute panic attack.

Some things are happening, slowly, but it's coming-

I've looked at that man's face so long I can't even tell if it looks like him anymore.

I think both Morrigan and Anders deserve better than to be lumped in with Solas, personally.

i've been uh, replaying dai recently

My part of an art trade with @oxygenforthewicked :-D

LOOK AT THEM :'-)))

"I heard you were talking sh*t about Cole..."

It was an idea that @sigeel suggested and I HAD TO comply. So here they are, official dad friends on a revenge mission.

Back in his days, you didn't even need staves!

(I'm having too much fun with this, expect more.)

Catch up with the rest of this whacky adventure here!

@platoniccereal look at this beautiful masterpiece 🤣

I love everything about this, their facial expressions, Varric looking like he’s about to hit someone with the instrument, and Solas about to go dreadwolf on someone

Sapnai ir Svajonės

My adore, my demure and joyful tone - is all for glory and for endless beauty of the @Blissedgone, as there is no volume, no words for joy of our meeting and your company<ззз

I’m thinking fondly about my first playthrough of Inquisition where I literally bought the game to romance Iron Bull, and anyway Solas is the only mage in the first chunk of the game so he was my boy there to open the magical obstacles. Anyway in those ten hours we were hanging out, me him and Iron Bull, and quiet scholar Solas starts absolutely yelling his goddamn head off at Bull at great length about personal liberties (when Bull is actually twice Solas’ size!! What the fuck, Solas isn’t scared of Bull at all?? He’s not even trying to be diplomatic, he’s just going for the jugular sheesh??) and every time I talked to him it was like.... super interesting for someone (me) who knew a little about the setting, like his POV IS STARTLING to someone coming from DA:O like I did.

“Blood Magic is fine?” (What???)

“I sleep and spend all my time in the Fade it’s nice” WHAT!?!? (I spent 6 hours of my REAL LIFE trying to escape the Fade one time, my Harrowing sucked, what the f u c k are you talking about???)

“I’m going to talk about Arlathan now” (mmmyesssssssss?)

“I’m going to scream at this 8-foot one-eyed qunari mercenary now” (SOLAS he could squash you... why aren’t you scared??)

“Oh flirting? I’m incredibly skilled at that and not shy or self-conscious even a little.” (But... weren’t you some nerd boy?? I thought you were like... a virgin college student?)

“Extremely dry and weirdly mean or intellectually superior comment” (me: surprised appreciative shitty wizard laugh)

“I’m so angry I’m going to kill these dudes if you don’t step in and stop me” (surprised pikachu I didn’t think you were the type??)

“My romance scenes are not what you’re expecting, but they’re so thematically relevant you’ll eat a shoe” (somehow I’m a million times more intrigued???)

Anyway every single thing he says is a few degrees left of what I expected out of my initial impression of “mid-twenties grad school academic pedantic shy boy” and anyway I genuinely started loving Solas just because he was never dull for a single second, and he was this strangely mean wizard prince and made me laugh a lot and anyway I restarted the game just to date him.

I cannot bear to think of you alone🖤