Dragon Age Veilguard review
20 Jan 2025 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaI finished playing Dragon Age Veilguard yesterday. Enjoyed the game overall, especially the ending. But I have mixed feelings about the game though.
Alright, so for a lengthy review with specific spoilers so be careful.
The game was overall enjoyable. But compared the previous Dragon Age games, it feels like the world was watered down of a lot of its most interesting and darkest elements. This is not always a bad thing, as certainly DAO had its warts in term of portrayal of sexism and edginess for edginess's sake, but it feels like Veilguard goes to far in that direction. Even when we're in Tevinter we barely deal with the topic of slavery for exemple. And the most emblematic way for me is how the Antivan Crows - a group previously portrayed as an institution that buys young Elven children to train them ruthlessly as assassins from childhood - are portrayed as plucky freedom fighters nobody in their right mind would ever dare to object (unless they're a traitorous villain, of course!). There are moments where the game feels downright puritain in that.
Overall the game felt the most lacking in its portrayal of villains. The big exception is Solas - of course - but a lot of that is due to the previous build up from Inquisition, although the sequence of quests Regrets of the Dread Wolf is also brilliantly done to portray him. However minor villains of each plotlines tend to be lacking and to lack either the complexity or the threatening stature of previous DA's antagonists. The main villain of the game, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are especially trite and boring, with a horrid voice acting that makes them feel like Series B Villains. The antagonists from Companion quests are sometimes a bit more interesting, I'll go more in depth about them later.
Another issue I have with the game is the way it structured choices. Previous DAs let you made a lot of choices both small and big that affected the world around you, including in small sidequests. In Veilguard, you don't get to make so many choices and what you do get tends to be structured in a very systematic ways. Each companion has a questline that culminates with a binary choice. It's very rote and artificial, even as the choices themselves weren't uninteresting. There are also a few choices in the main plot at specific moments which are interesting but too few and scattered. Also the epilogue slides at the end of the game didn't feel like they told you enough the consequences of your choices, instead repeating what you already knew from the game.
Otherwise, the game was very pretty, and its environment were gorgeous and a joy to explore. The various zones of the game weren't quite as diverse and distinct as they were in Inqusition, but they were more interesting to explore because of the little puzzles to find out how to reach chests and because the quests you had to do in them were fewer and more interesting than what Inquisition gave you.
Gameplay wise, I can't say I enjoyed the game more than Inquisition though. Perhaps even less. I enjoy playing Mages for the breadth of tactical choices that spells give you and on that point the game was a big step back with only 3 spells + the finisher move you could access at any point. I played an Evoker because early on I felt overwhelmed by the buttons choice in action, so playing someone focused on Crowd Control felt like a good idea, but while it wasn't inefficient for the difficulty level i played at, it felt fairly boring. It was a very smash the buttons game. I also missed having the companions have a more active part to the game. One thing I liked in term of gameplay I also really enjoyed the system of equipment being improved by multiple copies of the same item. Made planning for equipment something that happened pretty early and felt strategic.
The overall story works well. It's a little bit pat/generic -- high fantasy stakes, big threatening villains, endearing allies -- but it works well, and it's well paced and like I said I especially enjoyed the ending. There's a couple of very good twists and moment in there that left a vivid memory :
Spoiler: Hide
the choice on whether to punch or convince the First Warden, having to convince Mythal to lend her essence, the reveal that Varric was deal all along....
Overall, I had fun with the big story.
The salt of the stories is also in the extent to which each Companion and Faction had their quest and stories. I like that the companions brought so much storylines to deal with them. I especially loved how after the big fight at the end of each story, we had a quieter outing to talk about their feelings in the aftermath of our choice. The quality of each storylines was variable though.
So on to each companion:
Neve : was my favourite from early on. She has a whole fascinating vibe of Noir and Detective stories, she's well acted and written, and my pick for a romance. It didn't disappoint, I loved the way she called my Rook Trouble, and the tone of the dialogue with her filled with cynicism dawning into hope. Storywise, the various quests in Down City had a cool texture and tonality as well, but seldom all that much substance in term of story. Her main nemesis Aelia barely had enough personality to speak of and lacked a kind of personal connection to Neve to give the story some kind of stake. I missed Neve having more of a family background to be honest. She had friends/acquaintances and partners but not much in term of family background and I feel exploring more in depth the position of a Mage who belongs to a lower class of Tevinter society would have been interesting. The final choice of her storyline also didn't feel all that meaningful. The Shadow Dragons made for an interesting organization and I enjoyed the characters who filled it - and of course meeting Dorian again in a secondary role. Also shoot out to Lorelei the merchant of the faction for being a reference to DAO and one of the few that refers slavery more directly. I liked that we had a choice to make for the Shadow Dragons as well although, once more, i found the epilogue slide on the topic too vague and quick. As a whole Neve and the Shadow Dragons suffered from the Venatori taking the slacks for embodying all of Tevinter's ills. Instead of exploring structural social ills the way a previous DA would have, we had convenient faction of personality-less villains to fight.
Taash : was my second favourite character. I loved the way they were written and acted. I loved their vibe of sullen teenager discovering progressively who they are, struggling with themselves, their mother, their mixed cultural background. They felt very realized and vivid. Their main story was very personal and it worked. The final antagonist of the Dragon King was another personality-less villain but I didn't mind because the story wasn't about him. It was about Taash's mother - an interesting, complex figure the way the game doesn't have enough of - and about Taash's evolution. I also loved the way my choice of having Taash's exploring their Rivaini culture more resulted in some of the Antaam joining Rivain at the end (this fits well with the themes of the game regarding second chance/redemption). The Lord of Fortune is perhaps the faction with the least integration to the story and there's not much to say about them. But it felt good to see Isabela again (and kind of made me want to create a LoF Rook for the sake of that link as a reason for Varric to recruit that Rook). The quests in Rivain were however very pleasant to do because the zone was lovely and fun to explore and I really liked that we had a quest about the Annullment of the Circle of Diarmuid. I have similar concerns about the Antaam being the "evil" faction for the Qun as a way of watering down the game's theme as I do with the Venatori as the evil faction for Tevinter. But it's interestig that the Qun is undergoing its own cival war in the 8 years since Trespasser and it allowed for several interesting Qunari characters.
Davrin : It took me a while to warm up to Davrin tbh. At first I found him a little too brash and negative about the magical sides of things. However I did find him to have a well realized voice and personality; and it was refreshing to have a character in the team have some very reasonable issues with Lucanis' situation. I warmed up to him progressively, as he showed more nuance as a character, as we saw more of his background and his capacity for readjusting and especially because his questline is one of the most interesting of the game, with an enigmatic and tragic villain in Isseya. I found it especially gratifying that I could convince her to let go of the Gryphons in the end, thanks to my earlier choice to not listen to Solas' advice and to convince the First Warden. The choice at the end of that questline was also interesting, with either a different fate for the Gryphons or back to give the Wardens a second chance with them. My Veiljumper character chose to allow the Gryphons nother life in Arlathan but the other pick is also interesting. Davrin's struggling with the thematic of his mortality was also interesting and well done, and given that I picked him to lead the second team at the end and he died I found it very fitting. That tragic death made me like him all the more (although I found Assan's death as well even more tragic here, *ouch*). The Grey Warden was a faction with a lot of story relevence, mostly in the main plot and that worked very well for them. Also their representants in Evka and Antoine were very sympathetic and appealing. The quests in the Wetlands I mostly have a dreary memory of because that zone was not fun to explore lol. But I remember finding the hidden quest of the flowers at the very last minute and that was pretty fun. After that, not much to say, the Wardens are the Wardens and by now very well trodden territory for a DA.
Lucanis : I started out with a negative prejudice against Lucanis because I don't like edgy assassins all that much, but I was surprised from early on by how much I enjoyed Lucanis. I think that's because his voice actor is very good. His warm and appealing voice really gave him a lot of charms. Unfortunately although I enjoyed him a lot as a character, his storyline is pretty underwhelming. Being possessed by Spite should have had more story relevance that it ended up having. Instead we had a lot of Antivan Crow politics and melodrama that didn't work too well for me. That storylines was awash with distinct antagonists for once, but none of them worked well for me. Partially because the treachery was always too easy to foresee in the case of Illario and Ivenci and was played to vindicate the Crows instead of nuancing them. The Butcher at least was intriguingly written and had a cool presence for the very brief scene in which we met him. The less said about Zara the better - yet another personalityless Venatori. And I've already mentioned how unhappy I was about the watered down portrayal of the Crows before so let's not repeat myself. Since I didn't save Treviso I didn't have much choices to make in that part of the plot and I'm not sure how it would have been if i hadn't (also I do know Lucanis' last choice is hilariously about forgiving his cousin or imprisoning him which - well - is certainly a choice. Not even an option to kill him? ok then. I guess it does fit the theme of second chances/redemption though).
Harding : My main issue with Harding is she's a little bit too cute and harmless and lacking in asperity. That also means she's pretty cute and harmless so I don't have much to say against her either, but it's hard to connect with her a a real character. However her storyline was very interesting, delving into the origin of the dwarves and it was great to see her react to the reveal of Regrets of the Dread Wolf on that topic. I loved the final choice we had to do about her as well, although I would have loved for it to have more concrete consequences than it had. (I picked compassion, but anger feels like it would have also made a lot of sense). Overall it was also nice to have representation from Inquisition. Harding suffered a bit from not being tied to a faction with their own quests and supporting characters the way the others were, and also from her questline being a little bit too sparse and quick as well.
Emmerich : He's a fun character who I feel clash a bit too much tonaly and in term of lore with Dragon Age. Another character I'd condemn for being just a little bit too cute and harmless. And at least his quest is written with a lot of flavour and especially had the best villain (outside of Solas) from the game in Hezenkoff who is written with a lot of flair. She's just so much fun! Reminds me a lot from Into the Spider-verse's Octavia which is not a bad reference. The thematics of the fear of mortality isn't uninteresting and how it resulted between a choice of embracing parenthood or undeath was... intriguing. The Mourn Watch is pretty much on the same level as Emmerich. Fun and cute, a bit too cute, a bit tonaly dissonant with the rest of the game. I liked Myrna and Vorgoth, they were always fun to interact with. The quests the Mourn Watch gave, in a series of hauntings to deal with were a bit boring though. And the Grand Necropolis was a bit boring to explore as well.
Bellara : the last companion is the one I enjoyed the least. Like the previous ones, I found her writing to try way to hard to make her cute and appealing and bubbly and I felt pretty done with that. At least it's got some nice side to that like her love of serials. I really hoped to like her more than I ended up doing, especially since in the end I found her being a bit too judgemental and categorical in a way that underlined the game's puritanism. I didn't enjoy her questline about her brother a whole deal. Cyrian had a couple of interesting moments to him, like the twist that he was playing Anaris in the end, but I found it disappointing it was to end up with his death. But what infuriated me the most was the end choice we had from Bellara to either destroy or keep the archive. Fuck you game and your presenting burning books and destroying knowledge like a reasonable reaction to the world's being shade of grey. The Veiljumper were my faction of choice for Rook's background and I found it pretty disappointing in that role. Especially since I wanted my Rook to be a city elf born from parents who escaped from Tevinter slavery -- NOPE the game decided I was a dalish instead. Otherwise as a faction, I don't know if i have much to say about them. It's there, existing since 5 minutes ago apparently. The quests in Arlathan were usually fun to do because the environment is gorgeous and it had a lot of cool puzzles, but otherwise I don't remember much in term of substance.
So well, overall, not the worst team of companions but very far from the best either. I'm not sure yet how I classify it compared to Origins or Inquisition.
I might do a second playthrough to pick some different choices. I have no idea which faction/class/lineage I'll pick for that. I'd probably want to thoroughly spoil myself on the Faction backstories since they feel very specific in a way that the game doesn't tell you upfront.
Alright, so for a lengthy review with specific spoilers so be careful.
The game was overall enjoyable. But compared the previous Dragon Age games, it feels like the world was watered down of a lot of its most interesting and darkest elements. This is not always a bad thing, as certainly DAO had its warts in term of portrayal of sexism and edginess for edginess's sake, but it feels like Veilguard goes to far in that direction. Even when we're in Tevinter we barely deal with the topic of slavery for exemple. And the most emblematic way for me is how the Antivan Crows - a group previously portrayed as an institution that buys young Elven children to train them ruthlessly as assassins from childhood - are portrayed as plucky freedom fighters nobody in their right mind would ever dare to object (unless they're a traitorous villain, of course!). There are moments where the game feels downright puritain in that.
Overall the game felt the most lacking in its portrayal of villains. The big exception is Solas - of course - but a lot of that is due to the previous build up from Inquisition, although the sequence of quests Regrets of the Dread Wolf is also brilliantly done to portray him. However minor villains of each plotlines tend to be lacking and to lack either the complexity or the threatening stature of previous DA's antagonists. The main villain of the game, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are especially trite and boring, with a horrid voice acting that makes them feel like Series B Villains. The antagonists from Companion quests are sometimes a bit more interesting, I'll go more in depth about them later.
Another issue I have with the game is the way it structured choices. Previous DAs let you made a lot of choices both small and big that affected the world around you, including in small sidequests. In Veilguard, you don't get to make so many choices and what you do get tends to be structured in a very systematic ways. Each companion has a questline that culminates with a binary choice. It's very rote and artificial, even as the choices themselves weren't uninteresting. There are also a few choices in the main plot at specific moments which are interesting but too few and scattered. Also the epilogue slides at the end of the game didn't feel like they told you enough the consequences of your choices, instead repeating what you already knew from the game.
Otherwise, the game was very pretty, and its environment were gorgeous and a joy to explore. The various zones of the game weren't quite as diverse and distinct as they were in Inqusition, but they were more interesting to explore because of the little puzzles to find out how to reach chests and because the quests you had to do in them were fewer and more interesting than what Inquisition gave you.
Gameplay wise, I can't say I enjoyed the game more than Inquisition though. Perhaps even less. I enjoy playing Mages for the breadth of tactical choices that spells give you and on that point the game was a big step back with only 3 spells + the finisher move you could access at any point. I played an Evoker because early on I felt overwhelmed by the buttons choice in action, so playing someone focused on Crowd Control felt like a good idea, but while it wasn't inefficient for the difficulty level i played at, it felt fairly boring. It was a very smash the buttons game. I also missed having the companions have a more active part to the game. One thing I liked in term of gameplay I also really enjoyed the system of equipment being improved by multiple copies of the same item. Made planning for equipment something that happened pretty early and felt strategic.
The overall story works well. It's a little bit pat/generic -- high fantasy stakes, big threatening villains, endearing allies -- but it works well, and it's well paced and like I said I especially enjoyed the ending. There's a couple of very good twists and moment in there that left a vivid memory :
Spoiler: Hide
the choice on whether to punch or convince the First Warden, having to convince Mythal to lend her essence, the reveal that Varric was deal all along....
Overall, I had fun with the big story.
The salt of the stories is also in the extent to which each Companion and Faction had their quest and stories. I like that the companions brought so much storylines to deal with them. I especially loved how after the big fight at the end of each story, we had a quieter outing to talk about their feelings in the aftermath of our choice. The quality of each storylines was variable though.
So on to each companion:
Neve : was my favourite from early on. She has a whole fascinating vibe of Noir and Detective stories, she's well acted and written, and my pick for a romance. It didn't disappoint, I loved the way she called my Rook Trouble, and the tone of the dialogue with her filled with cynicism dawning into hope. Storywise, the various quests in Down City had a cool texture and tonality as well, but seldom all that much substance in term of story. Her main nemesis Aelia barely had enough personality to speak of and lacked a kind of personal connection to Neve to give the story some kind of stake. I missed Neve having more of a family background to be honest. She had friends/acquaintances and partners but not much in term of family background and I feel exploring more in depth the position of a Mage who belongs to a lower class of Tevinter society would have been interesting. The final choice of her storyline also didn't feel all that meaningful. The Shadow Dragons made for an interesting organization and I enjoyed the characters who filled it - and of course meeting Dorian again in a secondary role. Also shoot out to Lorelei the merchant of the faction for being a reference to DAO and one of the few that refers slavery more directly. I liked that we had a choice to make for the Shadow Dragons as well although, once more, i found the epilogue slide on the topic too vague and quick. As a whole Neve and the Shadow Dragons suffered from the Venatori taking the slacks for embodying all of Tevinter's ills. Instead of exploring structural social ills the way a previous DA would have, we had convenient faction of personality-less villains to fight.
Taash : was my second favourite character. I loved the way they were written and acted. I loved their vibe of sullen teenager discovering progressively who they are, struggling with themselves, their mother, their mixed cultural background. They felt very realized and vivid. Their main story was very personal and it worked. The final antagonist of the Dragon King was another personality-less villain but I didn't mind because the story wasn't about him. It was about Taash's mother - an interesting, complex figure the way the game doesn't have enough of - and about Taash's evolution. I also loved the way my choice of having Taash's exploring their Rivaini culture more resulted in some of the Antaam joining Rivain at the end (this fits well with the themes of the game regarding second chance/redemption). The Lord of Fortune is perhaps the faction with the least integration to the story and there's not much to say about them. But it felt good to see Isabela again (and kind of made me want to create a LoF Rook for the sake of that link as a reason for Varric to recruit that Rook). The quests in Rivain were however very pleasant to do because the zone was lovely and fun to explore and I really liked that we had a quest about the Annullment of the Circle of Diarmuid. I have similar concerns about the Antaam being the "evil" faction for the Qun as a way of watering down the game's theme as I do with the Venatori as the evil faction for Tevinter. But it's interestig that the Qun is undergoing its own cival war in the 8 years since Trespasser and it allowed for several interesting Qunari characters.
Davrin : It took me a while to warm up to Davrin tbh. At first I found him a little too brash and negative about the magical sides of things. However I did find him to have a well realized voice and personality; and it was refreshing to have a character in the team have some very reasonable issues with Lucanis' situation. I warmed up to him progressively, as he showed more nuance as a character, as we saw more of his background and his capacity for readjusting and especially because his questline is one of the most interesting of the game, with an enigmatic and tragic villain in Isseya. I found it especially gratifying that I could convince her to let go of the Gryphons in the end, thanks to my earlier choice to not listen to Solas' advice and to convince the First Warden. The choice at the end of that questline was also interesting, with either a different fate for the Gryphons or back to give the Wardens a second chance with them. My Veiljumper character chose to allow the Gryphons nother life in Arlathan but the other pick is also interesting. Davrin's struggling with the thematic of his mortality was also interesting and well done, and given that I picked him to lead the second team at the end and he died I found it very fitting. That tragic death made me like him all the more (although I found Assan's death as well even more tragic here, *ouch*). The Grey Warden was a faction with a lot of story relevence, mostly in the main plot and that worked very well for them. Also their representants in Evka and Antoine were very sympathetic and appealing. The quests in the Wetlands I mostly have a dreary memory of because that zone was not fun to explore lol. But I remember finding the hidden quest of the flowers at the very last minute and that was pretty fun. After that, not much to say, the Wardens are the Wardens and by now very well trodden territory for a DA.
Lucanis : I started out with a negative prejudice against Lucanis because I don't like edgy assassins all that much, but I was surprised from early on by how much I enjoyed Lucanis. I think that's because his voice actor is very good. His warm and appealing voice really gave him a lot of charms. Unfortunately although I enjoyed him a lot as a character, his storyline is pretty underwhelming. Being possessed by Spite should have had more story relevance that it ended up having. Instead we had a lot of Antivan Crow politics and melodrama that didn't work too well for me. That storylines was awash with distinct antagonists for once, but none of them worked well for me. Partially because the treachery was always too easy to foresee in the case of Illario and Ivenci and was played to vindicate the Crows instead of nuancing them. The Butcher at least was intriguingly written and had a cool presence for the very brief scene in which we met him. The less said about Zara the better - yet another personalityless Venatori. And I've already mentioned how unhappy I was about the watered down portrayal of the Crows before so let's not repeat myself. Since I didn't save Treviso I didn't have much choices to make in that part of the plot and I'm not sure how it would have been if i hadn't (also I do know Lucanis' last choice is hilariously about forgiving his cousin or imprisoning him which - well - is certainly a choice. Not even an option to kill him? ok then. I guess it does fit the theme of second chances/redemption though).
Harding : My main issue with Harding is she's a little bit too cute and harmless and lacking in asperity. That also means she's pretty cute and harmless so I don't have much to say against her either, but it's hard to connect with her a a real character. However her storyline was very interesting, delving into the origin of the dwarves and it was great to see her react to the reveal of Regrets of the Dread Wolf on that topic. I loved the final choice we had to do about her as well, although I would have loved for it to have more concrete consequences than it had. (I picked compassion, but anger feels like it would have also made a lot of sense). Overall it was also nice to have representation from Inquisition. Harding suffered a bit from not being tied to a faction with their own quests and supporting characters the way the others were, and also from her questline being a little bit too sparse and quick as well.
Emmerich : He's a fun character who I feel clash a bit too much tonaly and in term of lore with Dragon Age. Another character I'd condemn for being just a little bit too cute and harmless. And at least his quest is written with a lot of flavour and especially had the best villain (outside of Solas) from the game in Hezenkoff who is written with a lot of flair. She's just so much fun! Reminds me a lot from Into the Spider-verse's Octavia which is not a bad reference. The thematics of the fear of mortality isn't uninteresting and how it resulted between a choice of embracing parenthood or undeath was... intriguing. The Mourn Watch is pretty much on the same level as Emmerich. Fun and cute, a bit too cute, a bit tonaly dissonant with the rest of the game. I liked Myrna and Vorgoth, they were always fun to interact with. The quests the Mourn Watch gave, in a series of hauntings to deal with were a bit boring though. And the Grand Necropolis was a bit boring to explore as well.
Bellara : the last companion is the one I enjoyed the least. Like the previous ones, I found her writing to try way to hard to make her cute and appealing and bubbly and I felt pretty done with that. At least it's got some nice side to that like her love of serials. I really hoped to like her more than I ended up doing, especially since in the end I found her being a bit too judgemental and categorical in a way that underlined the game's puritanism. I didn't enjoy her questline about her brother a whole deal. Cyrian had a couple of interesting moments to him, like the twist that he was playing Anaris in the end, but I found it disappointing it was to end up with his death. But what infuriated me the most was the end choice we had from Bellara to either destroy or keep the archive. Fuck you game and your presenting burning books and destroying knowledge like a reasonable reaction to the world's being shade of grey. The Veiljumper were my faction of choice for Rook's background and I found it pretty disappointing in that role. Especially since I wanted my Rook to be a city elf born from parents who escaped from Tevinter slavery -- NOPE the game decided I was a dalish instead. Otherwise as a faction, I don't know if i have much to say about them. It's there, existing since 5 minutes ago apparently. The quests in Arlathan were usually fun to do because the environment is gorgeous and it had a lot of cool puzzles, but otherwise I don't remember much in term of substance.
So well, overall, not the worst team of companions but very far from the best either. I'm not sure yet how I classify it compared to Origins or Inquisition.
I might do a second playthrough to pick some different choices. I have no idea which faction/class/lineage I'll pick for that. I'd probably want to thoroughly spoil myself on the Faction backstories since they feel very specific in a way that the game doesn't tell you upfront.
no subject
Date: 21 January 2025 07:57 pm (UTC)My favourites were Lucanis, Emmrich, Neve - I wanted to like Bellara and Harding more, but they felt too cutesified. (Lucanis and Emmrich suffer from that too, but to a lesser extent, in my opinion.)
Davrin was actually quite well written, and I ended up romancing him first (I prefer not to romance the character I find the most attractive on my first playthrough, because it's more about making some mistakes... I romanced Lucanis second, and Neve third.)
(At the same time, if I'm honest, if the game was better written, it might not have given me as many feelings & thoughts, and I'm kind of back in the fandom as a result, so I guess it's partly a good thing that it annoyed me.)
no subject
Date: 21 January 2025 08:23 pm (UTC)I think I'll romance Tash the next time, but I'm hesitating between romancing Davrin or Lucanis for a third time, if I ever go so far.
Being back in the fandom is a mood at least! What kind of things are you reading? I'm not sure what interests me yet, I've dled a few Solavallen post ending fic we'll see if that strikes my fancy, otherwise Lucanis/Davrin feels like it could be fun but is probably dwarfed by the Rook ships.
no subject
Date: 21 January 2025 08:56 pm (UTC)Reading, I'm all over the place but very weirdly. I'm absolutely obsessed with this https://archiveofourown.org/works/61168450 alternative Inquisition fic, I mainlined a Modern Solavellan fake dating AU, and I don't know if any new ship will actually grab me enough (I think Lucanis/Davrin could be it, if there was a good one someone recced!). So, back in Solavellan hell/heaven.
If any post-ending Solavellans turn out to be good, I'd love to check them out... I'm a little wary of running across something that gives me bad feels in the canon world. It's safer (lol) to read AUs. I think Bellara/Neve could also be good, in the right context, but I'm not looking actively.
I broke my three-year hiatus and wrote a short f!Rook/Solas, but it's a betrayal angst fic that ends with Solas/m!Lavellan... I could read a good Rook/Solas, but I'm not sure what the quality is so far.
(Together with my wife we're also writing a crackfic version of 'Vileguard' misspelling purposeful, which has Rook in love with Lavellan, Lavellan in love with Solas, Solas in love with regret, and Felassan not dead. A love rectangle to be turned quadruple.)