I was planning to create lesbian character just to romance her since she seems like a fun, but after seeing this and experience Sera's personality first hand. I think I'm going to pass. She's rightfully landed on obnoxious category IMO.
Contains SPOILER.
Spoiler
I created a fem character and I'm currently romancing Sera and she loves it.
@Nathair: It's a lack of empathy for her tribalist friend people are upset about, not her lack of tribalism.
Thing is, Sera's "them" changes. Regular old down-trodden maids and farmers? Love 'em! Mages running from the Circle and Templars? Eh, they have special powers, they don't count. Oppressed elves in Orlais? Nah, too "elfy", let's not help them.
@NWN-Ming: I've read about moral relativism. You believe it--good for you. I don't believe it--good for me. It's not the topic here.
Man, some of us just don't care as much about the fact that she doesn't dance around your Inquisitor's feelings and outright states her (correct) opinion. A lack of social graces is hardly enough for me to call her a terrible person, though it may be enough to call her a bad friend to an elven inquisitor (fortunately my inquisitor wasn't elven and would be laughing alongside her). So she couldn't stop herself from being immature and going "told ya so. nyerninyer" when she discovers that the Dalish are as huge a joke as she always thought, whatever. Other companions have done worse. Remember that time that Sten and Blackwall butchered them some innocent families? That's just a touch more questionable to me than her pettiness. I mean, why aren't we talking about all the people that she's killed because she arbitrarily decided (or heard from her friends) that they're "baddies"? It seems to me that that's what you'd argue if you wanted to get the point across that she's a terrible person, not that she didn't pat your silly little elven inquisitors on the back when they were stressed about not being as smugly superior to every other elf as they thought.
I mean, why aren't we talking about all the people that she's killed because she arbitrarily decided (or heard from her friends) that they're "baddies"? It seems to me that that's what you'd argue if you wanted to get the point across that she's a terrible person, not that she didn't pat your silly little elven inquisitors on the back when they were stressed about not being as smugly superior to every other elf as they thought.
That's certainly a part of why she's a poor person to me. Hence my song on the previous page. 
I love Sera because she dislikes Solas as much as I do, I usually distrust people that don't say what they think and don't think what they actually say, and Solas fits the bill perfectly, he is your usual politically correct boring walking wikipedia.
I know if I knew her in RL I would get angry with her MANY times, but at least she is exactly what you see, there are no two sides to her, she is straight with you and you know she will never backstab you. She is the most realistic character in the game hands down, with her virtues and flaws and I appreciate her easy going attitute and humor even if she is obnoxious at times, she makes the game a much better experience, just like Dorian.
Also, I bet all this people bashing Sera for ONE phrase don't have a problem with Solas being racist, being dishonest with his true intentions with the inquisition and inquisitor and literally abandoning his FemElf love interest as soon as his own agenda is finished.
edit: sp mistakes
I'm torn on Sera. Really torn. On one hand, I loved her character when we first heard about her. Funny, trickster, what's not to like? Then we meet in game, and well.. She makes a lot of assumptions about my Dalish elf, and has absolutely no neutral ground. You're either tiptoe-ing around Sera's feelings, or you have outright hostility with her. I played a more moderate Dalish, who worships the elven gods, but has a very open mind on things. Who I also imagined to be a bit of a prankster. Then Sera got really hostile after the romance with Solas got locked in, post temple.(Previously I had been flirting with both of them.)
On one hand, it's funny that some of the Dalish elves, who think themselves superior, have slave markings. On the other hand, Sera seems to think that all Dalish have that superiority complex. Short of playing a devout Andrastian, or romancing her, I don't think it's really possible to get along with her. Or at least, it's incredibly difficult, and frustrating.
Sera seems to have a big chip on her shoulder about a lot of different things. According to her, Dalish are all stuck up and mages are crazy. When playing a Dalish mage, I just want to shake her. She doesn't even consider possibilities. She has a very black and white point of view.
As a character, I think she's well written. But she just doesn't really mesh with the group. If she thinks so poorly of a Dalish Inquisitor, why would she stay? It doesn't make sense.
I find it ironic people who are trolls don't like Sera, it's been my experience people who hate her tend to be trolls themselves. I'd wish these people would learn from the experience but trolls don't learn.
So you're saying you *really* don't like Sera then? Ok.
@Nathair: It's a lack of empathy for her tribalist friend people are upset about, not her lack of tribalism.
I'm not sure if you're being witty or confusing what I mean by tribalism with "living in tribes". By tribalism I basically mean that people adopt an identity or identities like "Gamer" or "Patriots Fan" or "Mac User" and then incorporate the "rules" of those identities into their own sense of self. Tribe members almost constantly reinforce and demonstrate their membership. Usual methods include automatically and openly being seen to support other members of your tribe(s) as well as publically opposing individuals or groups designated as Others. Anyone even peripherally involved in gaming has seen some spectacular demonstrations of tribalism lately.
Sera doesn't really do tribalism. For people that do (and most of us do) that might make Sera appear weird, cold, distant, off-putting. She doesn't return the high-five, she just leaves you hanging. She doesn't solemnly rub blue mud into her navel, she just laughs.
Thing is, Sera's "them" changes. Regular old down-trodden maids and farmers? Love 'em! Mages running from the Circle and Templars? Eh, they have special powers, they don't count. Oppressed elves in Orlais? Nah, too "elfy", let's not help them.
She doesn't love the mages one day and hate them the next. There's no "change". What there is is complexity. While she generally supports the underdog, that's not universal, it's not carte blanche and it doesn't trump everything else in the world. Part of why she hates the nobility is that she loathes pretension and affectation. Elves much? That could be there Roadrunner Linnaean designation, "Elf - Pretensious Affectationatus". Of course she is contemptuous of them, who wouldn't be?
Thing is, Sera's "them" changes. Regular old down-trodden maids and farmers? Love 'em! Mages running from the Circle and Templars? Eh, they have special powers, they don't count. Oppressed elves in Orlais? Nah, too "elfy", let's not help them.
Uhmmm, i'm fairly sure i remember in the palace banter (as a friend of mine got that particular banter, mine suffers from banter bugs all over the place), Sera was sad and angry when she saw the dead bodies of servant elves lying around in the palace (i think Gaspard's sister killed them). She was asking why they killed them, they did nothing wrong.
So yes, Sera does show sympathy to low level people, no matter elf or no elf. She dislikes the dalish for their "we're better than everyone" attitude and the nobles.
I find it ironic people who are trolls don't like Sera, it's been my experience people who hate her tend to be trolls themselves. I'd wish these people would learn from the experience but trolls don't learn.
Personally I take her with a grain of salt, she acts like a kid for good reason, she's had a hard life and has a point about her "little people" being caught in the middle. A lesson she learned on the streets. But of course with how terrible people are they won't ever take the time to understand her and just right her off.
TLDR; your a horrible person for hating Sera.
Actually no, i've seen them post in other topics. They aren't trolls..... i also think you don't know what troll means.
tribalism.
I read it as "tribadism". I... i'll show myself out.
I find it ironic people who are trolls don't like Sera, it's been my experience people who hate her tend to be trolls themselves. I'd wish these people would learn from the experience but trolls don't learn.
Nah, 99% of people that hate Sera are either Dalish Inquisitors or Solasmancers, she dislikes both (she dislikes the Dalish btw, not elves), so it's logical she will receive this backlash from them, what it is unfair is saying that she is a "bad person" when we've shared party with assasins, traitors and a literal terrorist.
I'm not sure if you're being witty or confusing what I mean by tribalism with "living in tribes". By tribalism I basically mean that people adopt an identity or identities like "Gamer" or "Patriots Fan" or "Mac User" and then incorporate the "rules" of those identities into their own sense of self. Tribe members almost constantly reinforce and demonstrate their membership. Usual methods include automatically and openly being seen to support other members of your tribe(s) as well as publically opposing individuals or groups designated as Others. Anyone even peripherally involved in gaming has seen some spectacular demonstrations of tribalism lately.
Sera doesn't really do tribalism. For people that do (and most of us do) that might make Sera appear weird, cold, distant, off-putting. She doesn't return the high-five, she just leaves you hanging. She doesn't solemnly rub blue mud into her navel, she just laughs.
She doesn't love the mages one day and hate them the next. There's no "change". What there is is complexity. While she generally supports the underdog, that's not universal, it's not carte blanche and it doesn't trump everything else in the world. Part of why she hates the nobility is that she loathes pretension and affectation. Elves much? That could be there Roadrunner Linnaean designation, "Elf - Pretensious Affectationatus". Of course she is contemptuous of them, who wouldn't be?
What are the Friends of Red Jenny, if not the exact same sort of group you presume she ''doesn't do''?
Her ''support'' of the underdog is also conditional to it profiting her, her personal quest makes that much very clear. It would also pretty damn hypocritical of her (or you) to ''not do'' tribalism, only to automatically assume all nobles are uncaring twats and all elves are pretentious asses. Hell, the Inquisition has no less than three, potentially four noble-born people in its upper ranks (Josephine, Dorian, Cassandra, human PC) and unless you play the PC that way none of them act like her noble stereotype do, yet she never even considers it, all nobles are still bad people because that's what nobles are and she's uncapable of seeing otherwise. Tell me again how she ''doesn't do'' tribalism and sweeping generalisation.
It seems like you like the theoretical vision of her, rather than the character that is actually in the game.
I kept her in my first playthrough, just threw her out in my second. And never before have I thrown out a companion, I even kept Merril after all her blood magic crap. She's just too much
Same. On my second playthrough I was trying to keep her around.. then..
After the events in Halamshiral, she goes ballistic on me for putting Briala in charge, accuses me of just being another big person, and then starts throwing veiled threats at me.
My Inquisitor (Dalish, already at her wits end) completely loses her **** on her, and basically screams at her that she better get her treacherous ass out of her face right this second or there will be consequences. Sera, apparently for the first time in her life, realizes that saying whatever the hell she feels like might actually have consequences. You can see it on her face, she goes from antagonistic ("I'm such a badass, I told HER!") to confusion ("Wait, did she just threaten me? But It's me!") to fear ("Oh maker, she's serious!"). She SPRINTS from the room with the most frightened look on her face I can imagine.
Felt so good.
Nothing in the game illustrated better to me just how much of a 5 year old Sera actually is.
Sera is clearly accustomed to getting her way by stamping her feet. She's used to saying whatever she wants and getting away with it because she plays the "I'm a cute idiot" card or just killing people she thinks are "stupid" (anyone who says anything she doesn't like).
Good riddance. Not even bothering to recruit her from now on.
I've never done that before. I've always recruited all the characters and done all of their stories because all of them were likable or relatable on some level. My 3 year old niece acts more grown up than Sera does.
I read it as "tribadism". I... i'll show myself out.
I guess Freud was right after all.
I'm torn on Sera. Really torn. On one hand, I loved her character when we first heard about her. Funny, trickster, what's not to like? Then we meet in game, and well.. She makes a lot of assumptions about my Dalish elf, and has absolutely no neutral ground. You're either tiptoe-ing around Sera's feelings, or you have outright hostility with her. I played a more moderate Dalish, who worships the elven gods, but has a very open mind on things. Who I also imagined to be a bit of a prankster. Then Sera got really hostile after the romance with Solas got locked in, post temple.(Previously I had been flirting with both of them.)
On one hand, it's funny that some of the Dalish elves, who think themselves superior, have slave markings. On the other hand, Sera seems to think that all Dalish have that superiority complex. Short of playing a devout Andrastian, or romancing her, I don't think it's really possible to get along with her. Or at least, it's incredibly difficult, and frustrating.
Sera seems to have a big chip on her shoulder about a lot of different things. According to her, Dalish are all stuck up and mages are crazy. When playing a Dalish mage, I just want to shake her. She doesn't even consider possibilities. She has a very black and white point of view.
As a character, I think she's well written. But she just doesn't really mesh with the group. If she thinks so poorly of a Dalish Inquisitor, why would she stay? It doesn't make sense.
Sounds like my playthrough!
I'm Playing a Female Dalish Elf, denies being the Hearld, beleives in the old elven god, fairly open minded and kind however. Can you be pro dalish and still romance her? I dont want to have to "lie" to gain her affection , i want my character to be.. well herself. Did you have trouble with this?
Worst case i got Cullen. >.>
But even at face value she's reprehensible. If she were a bloke instead of woman the debate would not be is she ******, it would be anyone else think Sera has a punchable head.
her flawed character is Objective from an individual's standpoint, because the individual is making the logical conclusion that she is a crap person from within the social boundaries which they were raised. they are not expressing a personal opinion they a make a statement of fact which is true for anyone that was raised in any modern society. you may as well argue the colour blue is subjective (which if you get right down it, it is. you wouldn't believe how important names and ideas for colours are important in order to see them saw a great doco where they showed how a tribe of people who only had a small number of names for colours couldn't see the difference in what we would consider very different colours) It doesn't change the fact that when you play eye spy anyone who understands our concept of colour will objectively state the sky appears to be blue.
you may as well be arguing that cory as a bad guy is completely subjective. it's a pointless debate.
Hell, the Inquisition has no less than three, potentially four noble-born people in its upper ranks (Josephine, Dorian, Cassandra, human PC) and unless you play the PC that way none of them act like her noble stereotype do, yet she never even considers it, all nobles are still bad people because that's what nobles are and she's uncapable of seeing otherwise. Tell me again how she ''doesn't do'' tribalism and sweeping generalisation.
It seems like you like the theoretical vision of her, rather than the character that is actually in the game.
But... but that's just not true. When did she ever accuse Josephine, Cass, Dorian or the human PC of being bad "cuz they're nobles"? The only person she gave that attitude to in my game was Vivienne and that's because she totally acts like the noble stereotype that Sera despises, despite ironically not being of noble birth.
What are the Friends of Red Jenny, if not the exact same sort of group you presume she ''doesn't do''?
Her ''support'' of the underdog is also conditional to it profiting her, her personal quest makes that much very clear. It would also pretty damn hypocritical of her (or you) to ''not do'' tribalism, only to automatically assume all nobles are uncaring twats and all elves are pretentious asses. Hell, the Inquisition has no less than three, potentially four noble-born people in its upper ranks (Josephine, Dorian, Cassandra, human PC) and unless you play the PC that way none of them act like her noble stereotype do, yet she never even considers it, all nobles are still bad people because that's what nobles are and she's uncapable of seeing otherwise. Tell me again how she ''doesn't do'' tribalism and sweeping generalisation.
It seems like you like the theoretical vision of her, rather than the character that is actually in the game.
But... but that's just not true. When did she ever accuse Josephine, Cass, Dorian or the human PC of being bad "cuz they're nobles"? The only person she gave that attitude to in my game was Vivienne and that's because she totally acts like the noble stereotype that Sera despises, despite ironically not being of noble birth.
The point is that she doesn't even attempt to reconsider her views on nobility, even with three of them doing their best (and a far better job than her, really) of helping the little people she treasures oh so much.
Lets get one thing straight here. People don't like Sera because she's a terrible person. A horrible (human) being. Its that simple.
Uhmmm, i'm fairly sure i remember in the palace banter (as a friend of mine got that particular banter, mine suffers from banter bugs all over the place), Sera was sad and angry when she saw the dead bodies of servant elves lying around in the palace (i think Gaspard's sister killed them). She was asking why they killed them, they did nothing wrong.
So yes, Sera does show sympathy to low level people, no matter elf or no elf. She dislikes the dalish for their "we're better than everyone" attitude and the nobles.
Actually no, i've seen them post in other topics. They aren't trolls..... i also think you don't know what troll means.
I read it as "tribadism". I... i'll show myself out.
What are the Friends of Red Jenny, if not the exact same sort of group you presume she ''doesn't do''?
They aren't. She doesn't even know who the other members of the "network" are. That's explicit.
Her ''support'' of the underdog is also conditional to it profiting her
Conditional? No, it is not. She supports the underdogs in a wide variety of situation that don't earn her a clipped groat.
It would also pretty damn hypocritical of her (or you) to ''not do'' tribalism, only to automatically assume all nobles are uncaring twats and all elves are pretentious asses.
Again, no. She explicitly says, on more than one occassion, that certain nobles are OK despite being nobles. She also acknowledges that many elves are OK as well. ("Not too elfy" is the expression, I believe.) What they do and how they behave determine her opinion. Sure, she generalizes sometimes and wrongly sometimes but that is not the same thing.
And it is not even remotely possible for her to be a hypocrite by not living up to my analysis of her.
Tell me again how she ''doesn't do'' tribalism and sweeping generalisation.
OK. Sera doesn't really do tribalism.
Lets get one thing straight here. People don't like Sera because she's a terrible person. A horrible (human) being. Its that simple.
Opinions, of course. In yours, she is. In mine, she's not.
Just something that I just had happen on a War Table mission that follows this up. I evidently assigned the wrong advisor to the mission, and the servants that were informing us lost their jobs, and I got disapproval from Sera, w/out ever talking to her.
Interesting, do you remember this particular mission?
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