085 | In which I read entirely too much Solas/Lavellan fic, and am led into temptation by puns

[straightforwardly]

► Solas (and Solas/Lavellan) has eaten my life. I’ve read so much fic in the last… ten days? (Holy shit, has it really only been ten days???)

I’ve also been writing a little, albeit slowly. But I digress.

It’s actually probably a good thing that I came to this game somewhat late; otherwise, I’d have been sitting around pining for more fic to exist. I’ve come across quite a bit of junk, but I’ve also found many really, really good fics, so I want to talk about them!


...I originally tried to do this in paragraph form, but it wasn’t working for me. I think blogging my playthroughs got me too attached to bullet points.

• Anachronism by Maleficar was actually the first Solas/Lavellan fic I read when I went out searching. (It has TIME SHENANIGANS, so it should be quite obvious why I was drawn to it.) In hindsight, Lavellen was a bit too much of the wide-eyed naive for my taste, but the writing was wonderfully lyrical, and the identity porn fantastic, so.


• I was a bit wary of Apotheosis by KeeperLavellen because of the first person POV, but the summary was intriguing enough to draw me in. I stayed up far too late reading this one, and while the story left me feeling oddly tired (which, come to think of it, is not unlike what the game itself did to me, though I wasn’t struck quite as hard by this one), there were a lot of moments that resonated with me, and I thought that their Lavellan had a great character voice.


• Various recs I read for By the Still Waters by emilyenrose led me to believe that it was a Solas/Lavellan fic. It… wasn’t really? It’s much more of a Fenris/m!Hawke fic, with a few great Solas/Lavellan scenes scattered throughout. That being said, it was a FANTASTIC read— great plotting, great writing, and great character voices. I’ve noticed from my poking around DA2 fic that m!Hawke is one of the things that throws me out of a story faster than anything, but he actually worked for me in this one.
  
  I… did have a few problems with the ending— it felt a bit tacked on, and, okay, while Fenris’ POV was the right choice for most of the fic, and it would have been weird for the author to switch character POVs right at the end, it… was really emotionally unsatisfying to see those events from Fenris’ POV?
  
  But anyways, other than that, it’s easily one of the best fics I’ve read in this fandom.


• I’ve also been obsessively reading all of geeky_jez’s Isii Lavellan fics. Like, to the extent that I’ve belatedly realized that I forgot to kudos most of her fic because I was too distracted trying to get to the next one.
  
  I also really need to give her a specific shout-out for actually getting me to read a modern AU, despite my general antipathy for the concept. In my defense, her modern AU is called Bread Wolf Bake You, and I only read it because the pun made me cackle literally every time I read the title.
  
  Said fic is also responsible for me realizing that I am not completely against modern AUs / other types of complete AUs for this fandom as long as it’s still set on Thedas, not on our world, and Solas is still Fen’harel.


• On another note, Shatter Me by valyrias is SUCH A GREAT post-game WIP with a really engaging plot. It’s also already updated twice since I started reading it, the second time being today, which is super promising! Plus, the latest update included Zevran. ZEVRAN. ♥ ♥ ♥
  
  (They also wrote a different fic about the Chateau d’Onterre, which, YES. That area may have scared the life out of me, but I am still incredibly fascinated by it.)


• There’s also Behind the Veil by heartslogos, which isn’t quite a Solas/Lavellan fic in the sense that the others are (for one, Solas as we know him isn’t even in it), but is incredibly engaging. I’d actually recommend it as a good Inquisitor-centric fic in general, even to people who aren’t into this pairing. Also a WIP.


• Sulena Nadas’din by AnonymousInquisitor is yet another WIP, but is also really good! It mostly stands out to me as being the one of the only “Lavellan goes into the past and meets Solas as Fen’harel” fic I’ve liked— I actually almost didn’t read it because I had tried out SO MANY, and they were all terrible. But the writing is good, I actually really like the OCs, the Solas reveal is not awkwardly handled, and overall, I think can buy this version of Arlathan.


• This one is not really Solas/Lavellan at all in terms of focus, but Ad Infinitum by Stormontheocean (WIP) is actually a really, really good story, despite being a “self-insert sent to Thedas” fic. I couldn’t put it down.


• Finally, there’s the WIP that I was reading up until yesterday! (And then it updated today, which is proof that the universe loves me.) Dalish & Divines by VespidaeQueen is basically the regency!AU of my dreams, AND it’s still set in Thedas, which means that its concept is already pretty much perfect. It does a really great job of taking the events of Inquisition and adapting them to a regency setting, and I am really enjoying how the author is handling the Solas/Lavellan romance.

I’ve read and liked plenty more fic, but those are the ones that stood out to me as being my favorites.


► While reading Solas/Lavellen fic, I couldn’t help but notice some recurring themes / tropes /etc., some of which I enjoyed, and others… not so much.

Two things that tend to throw me out really quickly is when Lavellan has a ~special~ interest in or otherwise defends Fen’harel when she’s younger (for example, wanting Fen’harel vallaslin), and when she’s super dismissive of Dalish ways for whatever reason. Both make me feel like the writer is trying too hard to make her Not Like Other Dalish. Like… Lavellan and Solas don’t need to be 100% in sync? THEY CAN HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS. She can be wrong about some things, and challenge him on others! It’s okay— preferable, even!

I don’t know. I don’t think that I’m articulating this well, but it really rubs me the wrong way.

Oh, and on a related note: when the Dalish are completely villainized, and are totally barbaric, and there’s nothing redeemable about them! I haven’t come across many fics like this, but it’s ruined some that I’d been otherwise enjoying up until that point. Seriously, fic-writers: Solas’ opinion is not gospel. Also, he himself admits that he may have been too harsh on the Dalish. More than once! Yes, they're not perfect— definitely not perfect— but they aren't totally awful either. Just, agh.

Another thing that throws me out really quickly is when the vallaslin decision is treated without any gravitas. Like, THAT’S A HUGE DEAL. The Dalish aren’t going to go “lol okay” if she tries to tell them about the truth about vallaslin / try to get them to remove it, and neither is she going to feel that way about it regardless of which option she chose. IT’S COMPLICATED, MESSY SITUATION, and it should be treated as such!

On a less weighty note: weird Lavellan names. There’s been some exceptions, but usually, if a custom name pings as too “off” for me, I can’t get through the fic. There have been custom names that I liked, but generally, I find the default “Ellana” to be the safest bet.

Finally, this last one isn’t quite a pet peeve, because 1) I realized that my own feelings on the subject are coloring my view, and 2) I actually have seen one or two that I liked, but: what is with this obsession with getting Lavellan pregnant????


And there we have it! The results of DAI inflicting me with a desperate need for fic are, apparently, a list of gushing recs and a few paragraphs of semi-venting.

.....And the Solas/Lavellan fanmix I was listening to while typing this up just starting playing a cover of "Wrecking Ball". After some brief moments of "wtf", I realized... it actually kind of fits? Wtf, Solas.