Solas and Redemption

modernfan:

Thinking about how the Inquisitor, in losing an arm, basically becomes a living metaphor of the irreversible damage Solas’ actions have caused the world.

Nothing Solas can do after creating the veil will ever truly fix what he has broken.  Lowering the veil will likely destroy far more than it restores.  As the Nightmare told him, your victory brings only death.  Part of Solas’ torment is that, deep down, he knows that even if he succeeds, the world will never be as it was.  That world is gone forever and he will always feel a phantom pain because it was a part of him…just like the Inquisitor’s arm was a part of her. 

Even the sky itself will never be the same after the breach has been closed.  Though now healed, it still bears a scar.

And that is how it should be.

Healing is not hiding the evidence of an injury.  It is renewal with remembrance.  The scar is visible, but it also becomes a point of strength.

People tend to be self conscious about their scars, viewing them as flaws, and people with prominent scars often feel shame and discomfort at having them exposed.  The loss of the pre-veil world and of the Inquisitor’s arm are both devastating losses that bring to mind the question:    

What is it to be whole? 

The Inquisitor must grapple with this question on an extremely intimate and personal level after the events of Trespasser.  Solas must ponder this same question on a much larger scale if he is to have any chance at redemption.

Solas cannot bring himself to see the post-veil world as real because he can only view it as evidence of his personal failure.  He doesn’t want to see the scar.  He wants to make it so that his mistake never happened.  As long as he refuses to accept that there must be scars, he will never heal and neither will the world. 

Even a romanced Lavellan cannot heal Solas.  He must put aside his grief and shame, accept that even with Mythal’s immense power he cannot undo his mistakes, learn from them and then make amends.  Otherwise, the price of his pride will be his soul.