HA, she approves of you telling her to shut up? That's my gurl.
Might have to try that line.
What I enjoy about this bit is that the disagreement can end without the Inquisitor sounding like she's sucking up to her. She basically raises her voice to Sera, forcing the issue to be dropped, telling her to set an example by shutting up. That she reacts warmly to this response is amusing.
Spoiler
Can you please stop eating my likes? Ktnxbai.
+1000 to your post.
A lot of people have already probably said this but here goes:
1. My biggest problem with Sera is that she's tagging along to see if there's any truth to what the Chantry has told her, and if you are specifically chosen by the Maker/Andraste. That's fine, but then, she refuses to acknowledge anything that might challenge her beliefs at all. The whole conversation after the Temple of Mythal really cemented my dislike of the character. It isn't just that she's scared, it's that she absolutely refuses to even consider anything she just saw/experienced/heard about might be true. This is not a quality I admire in real life, and I find it rather abhorrent.
But that seems to be par for the course with Sera. If something doesn't conform to her ideas, she just closes her eyes and makes fart noises. She actively cuts herself off from any sort of growth.
Like "I want to see what's really real!" But only if it aligns with my pre-existing views.
Actual quote from Sera IG: "I hate learning lessons. Makes my stomach hurt."
Yes, growing as a person is hard and it's supposed to be hard. It isn't easy for anyone, and I do not find it a virtue to actively avoid it.
2. Her internalized racism feels extremely toxic and is unpleasant to be around. It also makes her views on helping "the little people" seem like BS when she doesn't give a **** about elves. Elves make up a bulk of the minorized population across Thedas. I was really hoping we'd have a party member who is for helping the City Elves but no. We get... Sera who is proud to distance herself from any and all elves. Also, I never got an adequate explanation as to why she so virulently hates elves?? Like we have to read about her growing up in the Denerim Alienage, I believe, rather than being shown or told about that. Like, I don't want to speak too much on this because I don't belong to in a marginalized ethnic group, but it's... not exactly endearing.
3. She gets SUPER annoyed when people dare to stop and ask questions. Like, excuse me for not accepting things at face value and maybe wanting to understand what the hell you're saying? It comes off as incredibly condescending, which is another personality feature that rubs me the wrong way. I know she's not educated, but that's no reason to not ask questions and assume you know everything? It's so maddening. One moment she's saying she's stupid but then in another moment she's acting all high and mighty because YOU the PC are asking questions and didn't instantly understand something. UGH.
4. She is full of all sorts of hypocrisy. She actually seems incredibly selective of the people she protects, in sussing out who is 'worthy' of her protection and if her approval is anything to go off of, she barely seems to care about her so-called little people.
5. I'm not sure I care for how differently she treats the Inquisitor based on race. Especially in a romance. Like, why is it easier for a human noble to get approval from her? That just seems wrong with Sera hating nobles like she does. She also seems to fetishize qunari women, and I've heard that she treats a lady Cadash in a bit of an infantilizing way because of her smaller size. And romancing Sera with an elf? Wow. "I don't usually go for elves. Feels like a bag of chicken necks." .....WOW. WHAT A CHARMER SERA.
6. Her entire romance is a can of worms. I watched vids of it on youtube and I just felt so... unclean. It felt really superficial emotionally, which I didn't care for but then there's all this crap where Sera seems really manipulative. I mean, she'll give a Dalish Inquisitor an ultimatum of 'tell me everything that happened in the temple of mythal was untrue and by the way give up all your elfyness and your cultural heritage or I'm breaking up with you." Or the whole "I'm yelling at you about a nightmare I had" scene was... It just felt really weird to me. I get that the Veil is torn open and stuff and I'm not sure when it happens in the timeline but it just feels extremely unfair and emotionally manipulative of Sera to place that sort of onus of responsibility on the Inquisitor?? Like "You take responsibility for my subconscious please" that whole scene leaves me scratching my head.
I get that dreams can be super scary, I have had a crapton of nightmares, but my go-to response is not to blame my lover for their content s:
I can't even imagine how a post-well scene plays out with a romanced Sera.
A lot of abuse survivors have also mentioned that Sera's romance smacks of emotional abuse and that it can be downright triggering at times, so that's also a consideration.
7. She makes a lot of cissexist and transphobic remarks. Like, what if someone wants to play a transwoman with Sera? I can't imagine that feels good to hear the stuff she says.
8. I do not get her disapproval of putting Briala in charge at ALL. I can get that she might be wary to trust Briala but at the end of the day a noble got murdered (a friggin' empress) and another noble has to bow to an elf, someone "beneath" him. That should be her JAM right there. Killed one noble, took another down several pegs. What the hell don't you like about that Sera?? Oh right I forgot, you hate elves. Of course.
Basically Sera comes along to see the world, has been out there in the world too, but refuses to grow or change and I really abhor that quality about her.
I also do not care for her crudeness and sense of humor. I was hoping for a complex individual that actually gave a **** about helping marginalized people across Thedas and stopping corruption.
Instead we got... a walking fart joke who seems more interested in personal revenge than actually helping out her supposed "friends"
But that is not what is happening here. Sera is not ignoring the evidence, she is rejecting hearsay as evidence and she is rejecting the conclusion. This is explicitly explained in the video Riffy linked;
"You don't believe anything from Mythal?"
"'Course not.What, I should believe all that stuff, because Elves? I mean it was impressive and all, makes the Dalish look like ****** for livin' in the woods but so what? There's can't be a bunch of gods and The Maker. Don't matter how much or little you believe those don't fit. So, call me stupid, but I believe the stuff not made up by dead people who failed; Mythal is a ruin full of demons. I mean, it just makes sense right?"
"The evidence is hard to ignore. I believe it." <-- Bigfooties, UFO chasers, Homeopaths, Chemtrailers, the tinfoil hat mantra this is.
"No, now you're stupid. You can't think that because it's stupid." Yes Sera, yes it really is.
"But everything we saw!"
"Why believe it?" And this is a good question. Why believe it? It certainly isn't hard evidence. And she's not alone in doubting, as other have pointed out Sera might very well be right. The lines between demon and spirit and god are extremely fuzzy at best and the amount of credence that should be given to the hearsay presented is open to argument. So, you might disagree with her but this nonsense about her denying contradictory evidence is just that, nonsense. We're talking about Fade denizens here, when has anything ever been exactly what it appears or claims to be? Hell, the upshot of all this new stuff is that all the old stuff that certain groups believed completely and forever was completely wrong the whole time. Why not apply the lesson of that revelation to this New Dogma?
You don't have to agree, you just have to admit that there is more than one interpretation possible here.
Then at the end of the scene she says "Anyway, believe what you want. Just as long as we kill Coryphe-fish; whatever." So she has her say, you have your say, then she says "Fine, agree to disagree, let's get back to work." If you see that as a demonstration of closed minded intolerance then you are letting your preconceptions about Sera get the better of you.
Wow. That is an epic misreading of what Sera is arguing. Here, I'll highlight the relevant section for you.
"'Course not.What, I should believe all that stuff, because Elves? I mean it was impressive and all, makes the Dalish look like ****** for livin' in the woods but so what? There's can't be a bunch of gods and The Maker. Don't matter how much or little you believe those don't fit. So, call me stupid, but I believe the stuff not made up by dead people who failed; Mythal is a ruin full of demons. I mean, it just makes sense right?"
Sera is not some sceptic truth-seeker arguing that the Elven Gods are not really Gods. "The Maker is real, so the Elven Gods can't be real. Therefore, demons and lies. QED." Sera believes in the Maker, and this challenges her faith - so it must be dismissed and ignored and explained away. These are the words of a religious fundamentalist, not a sceptic.
And, as we find out during the game, she's wrong. Whether the Elven Gods are Gods or not, they undisputably exist.
Edited for phrasing
No, she just says that the gods don't exist, elsewhere she suggests that the elves must have been worshipping demons. She doesn't dispute that the Dalish worshipped SOMETHING real, just they weren't gods.Wow. That is an epic misreading of what Sera is arguing. Here, I'll highlight the relevant section for you.
"'Course not.What, I should believe all that stuff, because Elves? I mean it was impressive and all, makes the Dalish look like ****** for livin' in the woods but so what? There's can't be a bunch of gods and The Maker. Don't matter how much or little you believe those don't fit. So, call me stupid, but I believe the stuff not made up by dead people who failed; Mythal is a ruin full of demons. I mean, it just makes sense right?"
Sera is not some brave sceptic arguing that the Elven Gods are not really Gods. She's arguing the Elven Gods can't exist. "The Maker is real, so the Elven Gods can't be real. QED." Sera believes in the Maker. She is the absolute opposite of a sceptic - she has a worldview and anything that contradicts it gets ignored and explained away.
And, as we find out during the game, she's wrong. Whether the Elven Gods are Gods or not, they undisputably exist.
She doesn't dispute that the Dalish worshipped SOMETHING real, just they weren't gods.
Exactly this.
Sera lost all credibility with me the way she talked and argued. Anyone who think
"No, now you're stupid. You can't think that because it's stupid." is a valid argument is not worth talking to. If she was just critical of the dalish but could still speak like a normal person I would not mind her as much. Now I just keep her to rub it in her face that I do value the dalish and the whole Herald of Andraste thing is hogwash. There was more evidence of the dalish gods existence then there was of the Maker or Andraste's involvement with the Inquisition.
Also Solas for example actually do know the elven language yet Sera still make a mockery of the whole thing. She's not interested in talking about it, she will just make funny noises and say stupid a lot if anyone bring up any "elvish things".
Sera lost all credibility with me the way she talked and argued. Anyone who think
"No, now you're stupid. You can't think that because it's stupid." is a valid argument is not worth talking to.
I find it interesting that so very many of the people who hate Sera seem to have followed the exact same (most inflammatory) path with her. Seems to suggest a certain fundamental ideological difference.
Also Solas for example actually do know the elven language yet Sera still make a mockery of the whole thing. She's not interested in talking about it, she will just make funny noises and say stupid a lot if anyone bring up any "elvish things".
Actually, the funny noise Sera makes is making fun of Solas for speaking Elvish to people who don't speak the language. She then explains this (which is kinda weird for someone not interested in talking about it.)
Sera lost all credibility with me the way she talked and argued. Anyone who think
"No, now you're stupid. You can't think that because it's stupid." is a valid argument is not worth talking to. If she was just critical of the dalish but could still speak like a normal person I would not mind her as much. Now I just keep her to rub it in her face that I do value the dalish and the whole Herald of Andraste thing is hogwash. There was more evidence of the dalish gods existence then there was of the Maker or Andraste's involvement with the Inquisition.
Also Solas for example actually do know the elven language yet Sera still make a mockery of the whole thing. She's not interested in talking about it, she will just make funny noises and say stupid a lot if anyone bring up any "elvish things".
I don't suppose it helps that Solas didn't really bother to say what it meant, though likely the response to that would have been "Well why didn't you just say that in the first place?", which would be a fair question.
I find it interesting that so very many of the people who hate Sera seem to have followed the exact same (most inflammatory) path with her. Seems to suggest a certain fundamental ideological difference.
Actually, the funny noise Sera makes is making fun of Solas for speaking Elvish to people who don't speak the language. She then explains this (which is kinda weird for someone not interested in talking about it.)
Well I give you the second example, speaking elvish to someone who don't know or don't care about it might be pointless and she did get that point across probably in the quickest way possible. I still think she is quite rude though, opening mocking another characters beliefs (dalish) is not a nice thing to do. It would be like the dalish insulting the rest of the Inquisition each time they invoked the Maker.
At any rate I have to admit I don't like her perspective on the world outside of character as well. In the place of the elves/dalish I would want to know the history and she would rather push it all aside.
Sera lost all credibility with me the way she talked and argued. Anyone who think
"No, now you're stupid. You can't think that because it's stupid." is a valid argument is not worth talking to. If she was just critical of the dalish but could still speak like a normal person I would not mind her as much. Now I just keep her to rub it in her face that I do value the dalish and the whole Herald of Andraste thing is hogwash. There was more evidence of the dalish gods existence then there was of the Maker or Andraste's involvement with the Inquisition.
Also Solas for example actually do know the elven language yet Sera still make a mockery of the whole thing. She's not interested in talking about it, she will just make funny noises and say stupid a lot if anyone bring up any "elvish things".
So if I just started spouting off to you in Swahili, for example, since I can't really speak it, instead of telling me that speaking a language you understand would be better, you'd just say something back, and hope you got what I said right? ...and again, with the Solas reference, the guy that has literally been lying to you the entirety of the game. However, the exchanges between them in party banter are pretty clear, early, about how she feels, and how he's trying to "convert her to elfyness", something that she has been against since we meet her. Yep, consistent people are bad.
The actual evidence that I observed? It demonstrates that the Elven "Gods" may well be Spirits or Demons. I base that entirely upon what happened with Anders and Justice. A Spirit and a mortal, sharing one vessel, which is, it seems, what has been happening with Flemeth. We have solid proof of a spirit sharing a body with a mortal, what proof do you have that the Gods in Thedas need to share bodies with mortals? What proof do you have that they are even capable of it? I can prove that Spirits and Demons can, Connor and Anders. So, based on empirical evidence, Sera was right, about the elven pantheon, even if she doesn't know it. She didn't see the closing cinematic, after all.
Edit: lot of replies since I started typing, must be my age...
There is no real proof of the Maker as well, the entire Herald of Andraste thing is pretty much based on faith alone. In one conversation Cassandra even say that to the people the fact that an elf could actually do good is proof that the maker is involved. That line just comes out as extremely insulting.
At any rate about Sera, the impression she gives me is that her choice between the Maker and the creators is not based on facts either. It's simply based on the fact that the elves failed and she rather not spend her life following a belief that already failed. I don't think the dalish gods are real gods either but that doesn't make the path of the dalish anymore valid. They simply want to know their own history and have a culture of their own outside of the humans. I can't fault them for that while Sera obviously does.
She is going with what she sees as the winner side and call everyone stupid if they dare to be too "elfy" or whatever she called it.
She's rough because she's lived a rough life, I think people are too quick to judge in general. If I go down to the local pub for a beer people are much ruder there... but we usually have a lot of fun too. I actually appreciate how upfront she is. Upfront and rude people are fine. Why? You know where they stand, always. They're much better to have around than loyal, deceitful people... these people are usually much more dangerous.
Guest_starlitegirl_*
Sera is annoying. Also not fond of her attitude that all rich people are bad or at least it comes across like that. She's no better in that she's not some robin hood. She's out for herself. And she's pretty sick looking. Not that she should be some beauty queen but she really is hideous looking. Then she talks like an idiot at times and her voice grates. Can't get rid of her fast enough.
I still think she is quite rude though, opening mocking another characters beliefs (dalish) is not a nice thing to do.
No argument there, she is quite rude and mocking.
I guess I just don't value "nice" nearly as much as others might when it comes to such things.
There is no real proof of the Maker as well, the entire Herald of Andraste thing is pretty much based on faith alone. In one conversation Cassandra even say that to the people the fact that an elf could actually do good is proof that the maker is involved. That line just comes out as extremely insulting.
At any rate about Sera, the impression she gives me is that her choice between the Maker and the creators is not based on facts either. It's simply based on the fact that the elves failed and she rather not spend her life following a belief that already failed. I don't think the dalish gods are real gods either but that doesn't make the path of the dalish anymore valid. They simply want to know their own history and have a culture of their own outside of the humans. I can't fault them for that while Sera obviously does.
She is going with what she sees as the winner side and call everyone stupid if they dare to be too "elfy" or whatever she called it.
And she's pretty sick looking. Not that she should be some beauty queen but she really is hideous looking.
<...>
and her voice grates.
Just want to highlight those... for no particular reason. 
No argument there, she is quite rude and mocking.
I guess I just don't value "nice" nearly as much as others might when it comes to such things.
Agreed. People place far too much emphasis on being "nice", as if being "nice" determines whether you're a decent person or not.
I think that particular part of Sera's dislike for them comes from their insistence on looking down on city elves and insistence on being the only true elves while the city elves have lost their way. You have to think of Sera as someone that thinks in terms of class before race, if she thinks of race at all. She finds it quite annoying when elves try and tell her their ear shape gives them something meaningful in common, which is pretty much what the Dalish do.There is no real proof of the Maker as well, the entire Herald of Andraste thing is pretty much based on faith alone. In one conversation Cassandra even say that to the people the fact that an elf could actually do good is proof that the maker is involved. That line just comes out as extremely insulting.
At any rate about Sera, the impression she gives me is that her choice between the Maker and the creators is not based on facts either. It's simply based on the fact that the elves failed and she rather not spend her life following a belief that already failed. I don't think the dalish gods are real gods either but that doesn't make the path of the dalish anymore valid. They simply want to know their own history and have a culture of their own outside of the humans. I can't fault them for that while Sera obviously does.
She is going with what she sees as the winner side and call everyone stupid if they dare to be too "elfy" or whatever she called it.
It's weird, I didn't get any disapproval or negative speech about letting the mages be full allies the second time through (did big time the first time). She doesn't treat me like I locked them up, though. So if it's a glitch it's a very weird one.
I was gonna type up an essay on everything that's wrong with Sera, but then I realized I could make my point more succinctly.
Consider Cole. Cole is a spirit of compassion. In his uncorrupted form, he is the closest thing to Pure Good that exists in the DA universe. Everything he does, he does for the sole purpose of helping people. As Solas puts it:
Solas: How go your efforts in Skyhold, Cole?
Cole: I made the scullery maids stop crying and one of the boys in the stable is happier. Some of the servants are angry. My help makes work for them... Do you want me to stop?
Solas: No. You exist to help others. You are kindness, compassion, caring. If you stopped giving comfort, you would twist into something else. As you did before, I suspect.
Cole: Yes. I will not be that again.
Solas. Good. Never forget your purpose. It is a noble one, even if this world does not understand.
And now here's a list of the companions who are kind to him, or who warm up to him during the course of their banter even if they had misgivings about him being a 'demon' at first:
Solas
Varric
Dorian
Iron Bull
Blackwall
Cassandra
And now here the companions who loathe him throughout the entire game.
Vivienne
Sera
What a huge coincidence, it's the two companions I can't stand!
At the end of the day, Sera is a petty, close-minded and hateful woman who can't recognize genuine goodness when it's standing right in front of her.
I imagine if Charles Barkley ever had ADD and was a woman he'd be SERA in dragon age Inquisition.
Congrats to Lukas (it was Lukas who wrote her, ya?), people seem to have strong opinions on the character. With some defending, and others attacking.
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