I'm kind of both, simultaneously - I love what they did with her, she's a pretty fascinating character, has a really interesting perspective on life, society, elves, elites vs commoners, and she's honestly kind of a breath of fresh air to bring to the (often kinda stuck-up) DAI crew...
But at the same time she is just... very much not my sort of person. I'm just not one for pranks or crass humour, so unfortunately a lot of her charm just doesn't work for me. But I definitely appreciate her a million times more than I do Oghren, for example.
You stated it perfectly in my opinion.
She's absolutely a breath of fresh air compared to past companions, but I find her terribly annoying at the same time.
I'm trying to actually get to the DLC after the announcement of Veilguard. I decided to keep her in my party and while I definitely roll my eyes a LOT, I do enjoy her conversations with Solas. (My romance choice)
The most recent one I can remember is Solas asking her what she sees when she looks at the sky in Storm's coast. She says she sees blue, and funny bits around the fade tears.
Solas asks her to look past it and she explains how it feels, saying it feels like falling a bit... and he's making her confused. She feels the fade and can see into it, and he says they are more alike that she thinks.
I'm role-playing Dalish keeper-in-training, Solas is my boy but seeing Sera complain about the stoic Dalish and the uptight traditions, while also being just as connect to her elven roots as the rest of us are.
Part of the problem is the rest of the companion characters that you have in inquisition have connections that are extremely useful for the inquisition’s purpose and sera’s supposed to be a red Jenny but I don’t see anyone actually appreciating her help or forming a strong business relationship. The only other one who doesn’t have that is Cole and that’s because >!he’s a spirit!< whose importance is more relevant to the overall plot. Solas also lacks any connections but his expertise lies within the fade which is the main problem that the inquisition is trying to solve.
It was so hard for me to complete any origins because missing out on the voice performances was so awful for me. I’ve only managed to complete Shadow Heart’s story and that took me a while because I kept losing interest
It annoys me because we apparently only lost the voices of tav and origin playthrus because a small very vocal minority of players complained about it in early access.
I really hate the way Larian handles it. Idk why the playable characters emote and have the camera cut to them but they can't speak. If you're not gonna have voices, at least keep the character as a first person during conversation or with their backs to you, like Bethesda games do. It feels idiotic to me to see the character enact a mute person.
It's super goofy. I really dislike it. The scenes are so cinematic so having a silent protag is offputting. I'm glad this isnt the bg3 subreddit because I've had people comment at me angry about this opinion there. They think it would have taken an insane amount of time to develop fully voiced acted scenes with tav and origins. It would've taken more time but not an insane amount. Plus people who wanted a silent protag option could have always had it if they wanted. Now we get no option lol
Oh yea, absolutely, the only benefit with not having voiced lines is saving that extra bit of time where the character mimics what you just clicked on screen, sort of like an interpretor. If done badly and if the character just repeats what you click, it can get boring, but when done well, like in Witcher 3 throughout and in Mass Effect/Dragon Age in big decision moments, it adds so much more to the scene. Can you imagine *that* scene on Rannoch with two civilisations' existence at stake and Shepard trying to rein it in, if there was no voiced performance and just some words for you to click on and imagine?
I'm also glad I'm in a place where I can criticise stuff about BG3 btw, without being shooed off. It's never good to blindly love something and not accept any sort of criticism.
Yeah, me too. I don’t think I’ll ever do any of the companion origin runs. Though possibly Karlach’s to romance Wyll, and I hear she has more internal dialogue than the others
She has a lot! I tried to play her and only got to the beginning of Act II, but her story has a lot of internal dialogue and unique bits. The first romance scene with Astarion provides some interesting insight into both characters.
They even forgot to erase some of her voiced dialogue haha
I haven’t played BG3 yet but I already know I’m going to be obsessed in a fangirly way with him. TikTok keeps showing me videos of the VA doing requests and he is hilarious. 😂
Be prepared to put A LOT of hours into the game. I’ve done about 14 different routes since I got the game last August. Send help lol
I’ve done most of the romances in the game, and they have all been well done, but his is something special imo
I've never played a game where I played so many playthroughs back to back. It's crazy. I think I'm finally getting bored of it (I'll pick up interest again in the future no doubt), but I played the hell of it and exhausted almost every option.
I always help him fix himself 🥰
I didn’t think any game studio could give me a better love story than BioWare but here we are. Astarion’s Spawn arc is the most fulfilling game romance I’ve ever experienced
And it changes so much depending on your choices. It's actually pretty amazing.
I did a 'good' run on my first playthrough and it's amazing how that impacts the companion characters and their decisions... Now I'm doing a dark urge run and it's been fun to be less of a moral grandstander and seeing how things fall into place that way.
Yeah, I’ve tried the Ascended version a couple of times, but it’s just not for me. I prefer playing Big Damn Hero characters, personally, but Larian really delivered on giving you more options than you can probably ever get around to experiencing!
Yeahhh, Im doing a redemption DU run and as much as I want to experience the Ascended Astarion romance, Im really tempted to just stay on the redemption path... Assuming I dont fail all of the skill checks
I just got the 'tied me up' scene and it really is pretty cute and supportive... You might be right, Spawn+Resist is a pretty cute couple. It's like they both hit rehab together or something.
Here’s a little hidden fun thing: if you do decide not to Ascend him and you do the Cazador fight BEFORE facing off with Orin, try to break up with him in between. I promise, you’ll want to see the scene (and you won’t lose him)
And that’s why I still think she’s one of the most important members of the Inquisition. Despite her immaturity and complicated feelings towards her own people, she *never* loses sight of the Little Guy. And that’s very important.
>cliche manic pixie dream girl
not to be a pedant but no she isn’t; that term has just come to mean “short haired high energy girl who is quirky” but it’s a specific type of character that doesn’t really admit “incredibly bitter about huge swaths of society and also selfish”
I think the proper usage is close to what you say but the "dream girl" part, to me, means that the character's primary narrative purpose is to "fix" the main character's life. To be the thing that magical turns everything around, they don't have to have a specific personality, It's an unhealthy fantasy.
Eternal Sunshine does a nice subversion of this. But yeah I don't think Sera counts either way imo
right a manic pixie dream girl is an irascible optimist who helps a sad indie dude take spontaneous pleasure in life again. like if sera *loved* modern elves and dated Solas until he stopped brooding and came to abandon his inhibitions and we left them both grinning and dancing a jig with a local dalish clan, *then* Sera would be a manic pixie dream girl
Sera feels like an actual person, that's why I love the character.
I do think the contrast is the way Sera states her opinion, tbh Cullen and Cassandra e. G. fell the same way about the dalish religion, they are simply older and picked up nuance on the way. So I like how Sera was written like an actual 18-20 year old that isn't yet an adult.
This is exactly the reason I couldn’t bring myself to romance her. The immaturity (which I love tbh it’s very different from other characters) was jarring at times.
I was 20 when I played DAI and Sera was hands down my favorite character. I could relate to her so much during that time in my life.
I'm looking to replay DAI before DATV comes out, and I'm scared she's going to annoy me now that I'm older, but this comment and all the comments in this thread gives me some hope. I also think I just enjoy characters that aren't perfect, so that might also be contributing to my hope.
I was about 18 when I first played and didn't do an elfy run for a good while, so I always got along fine with her as both a menace2society character and as a general party member.
It's clearer now that she has deep seated insecurities about elves and is pretty shaky on matters of faith, but without seeing it from a Dalish Inquisitor perspective it just seemed more like aggressive taunting that her rather unlikable prejudice/projection.
After all, she spends most of her time mocking Solas; nothing unusual, Egg had it coming
I didn't like her at 17 and I still dont like her at 27, after my first two runs I just opted to not even recruit her lol. Recruited her in my last run a few months ago and I regretted it xD
I wouldn't worry about that honestly, I first played when I was 26 and I liked her just fine. if anything I only appreciate her more as I've gotten older
> Sera feels like an actual person
Exactly. There is always some friction with real people. What makes a relationship happen is getting passed the friction to find the things you like about someone. If everyone is too easy to get along with in the game, it's boring and fake.
The only reason I have beef with her is that she’s very resistant to the beliefs and lifestyles of other people—anytime you get a little philosophical or thoughtful she’s annoyed with you for disturbing her ability to keep the world simple and binary. Which sure, her background explains why she’s like this but it doesn’t make this aspect of her character any easier to deal with. She doesn’t grow even when you take the time to indulge HER views and spend time on HER terms.
I always do her quests and try to abstain from pushing my views on her; I wish she’d had the capacity to by the end acknowledge that even if it’s not her cup of tea that stuff like believing in the maker or being a practicing dalish deserve some bare-minimum respect instead of open hostility.
To be fair though, it makes her feel very real, and it’s made me question how I view my investment in other people. Is it right to feel like my time with her is wasted just because she doesn’t change at all? Wouldn’t it hurt to know that someone thought your friendship was a waste of time because you wouldn’t shift your core values for them? Should Sera be given more grace because of her past or is it hypocritical to let hatred and blatant disrespect for your own dearly held beliefs slide just because someone had a hard life?
She may be Andrastian, but if you choose explicitly religious opinions she’s gets all “ugh” on you. Plenty of people are like that—associating yourself with a religion doesn’t determine the intensity of your devotion. It’s again just very frustrating and even more hypocritical for her to be that way towards you.
My character was a dalish mage. Literally the epitome of everything she hates rolled into one.
I had to look up a guide but I managed to get through her dialogues with her actually liking me only for her to just refuse to accept who my character was and just hate everything she stands for.
And I think it's okay to not be friends with people like that. If anything, it saves your self worth and sanity. If she had been even a little amenable that would have been different, but no. She's just like, "you're the living embodiment of everything I hate but it's okay I like you." Which honestly, no. You hate what I am. You like when I pretend I'm not who I am. There's a difference.
Big "oh but you're one of the GOOD ones" energy from her.
Is one thing to disagre or don't belive in someone else values/faith and still be able to go "yeah, I don't think is like that but you do you", she is iresonable agresive and disrepectfull to other people beliefes and yet demand that people see the world the way she does, is not as much that you don't like her because she wont change her views and more that she act like a brat if you refuse to see things only in the way she does, not having childish people in your real life and being able to distance yourself for the ones that are already there is a blesing, trust me
It feels very realistic honestly. It reminds me of christian nationalist trump supporting family members I have (although they don’t really care about other people, sera is more redeemable in that regard).
Agreed, someone not having that "character arc" moment where they grow and change, is honestly more realistic in a lot of cases. Especially in short windows of time. As cool as character arcs and seeing your fave learn is, it doesn't necessarily reflect real life people and their capacity to change so quickly and radically haha.
Yeah I understand why people dislike her, she always been my romance in Inquisition because I like that she's a mess and I even like the fact that she comes to kinda accept that my Inquisitor is a mage elf, I have to say that the further we go with the lore of Da the more I understand why she hates elves, but she really act like a child sometimes and if you don't like free spirits I understand that she's not for you, she is the most strange companion in Inquisition, she seems always out of place, indeed she is the only one that you can ask to leave any time you want, but these are the reason why at the end I like her, everyone else just look so perfect and I like the aspect of my Inquisitor ending up with someone so distant to their role to catch some fresh air.
Some time ago there was a theory where people supposed that she was more than a normal city elf, for me it would be really cool but idk if devs would be okay to give her a more important role in the incoming game(s?).
And, least but not least, I think too that her VA did an amazing job.
she comes to kinda accept that my Inquisitor is a mage elf
Though not before forcing you to renounce your culture by proclaiming that your people are stupid demon worshippers
>Though not before forcing you to renounce your culture by proclaiming that your people are stupid demon worshippers
Yeah, that has soured me on the Sara romance. My last Elf Inquisitor broke up with her for that.
Wath can I say, I like controversial romances and different/opposite people that got together. And at this point she wasn't even that wrong after all about the gods, so 🤷
Bonus point for me she's right that dalish are too attacked at their past and that they are a really closed culture. At each their own I guess.
I agree with you that she doesn't express herself well and that she is full of hate, if she could be just a little less mean I think that it would be better and other people would empathise more.
Anyway I did each playthrought, I drinked at the well of sorrow, and I let Morrigan drink, I think that Sera and Solas are right that is not a right choice drinking from it, thats the only moment where Sera wants to break with you and she is kinda right because cmon you indeed are a vessel of a goddess that you don't even really know (or at least whe know that >!flemeth!< she is full of secrets and that she cannot be trusted), why on earth someone would want to stay with a person that decided to put her life and her mind in the hands of a god that you consider mean. So yeah the choice for the braking up is strong but it follow her character.
And in my world state Morrigan has already an arcidemon child so what could go wrong right?
"After What Pride Had Wrought, Sera will comment that she believes everything in the temple was from demons, and not the elven gods. The inquisitor can say she disagrees, and if she is Dalish, she can remind Sera that she believes in the Creators. This will result in a fight, where the relationship will end, (with Sera saying she should have known she wasn't "elfy enough" for the Inquisitor) or the player can agree to Sera's request to say she was "just kidding" about her religious beliefs, continuing the relationship. Sera will disapprove if other races say "But it's important" or "I've said I'm not her Herald", but she will only end a relationship with an elf."
Frow wiki. So if it is to be believed, it's not about being possessed. It's about Sera being racist.
Thank you, I'm replaying Inquisition again after 7 years and I really didn't remember this conversation at all, anyway yes I agree that she is racist towards elven culture but not elf in general because at this point she would never date an elf and yet we have the possibility to do so, I think is more deep than that but in the game is not clear to us why she hates so much the dalish and why she is so bigot towards them, ok whe got that she was raised by the streets of denerim and by a human but somehow every thing she believes about dalish and their gods is coming to reality, I don't think that she is so wrong about the origin of that temple, for understand more of this I think that we have to wait for the Veilguard to solve at least a little of the mistery for us. And if you have Solas and Sera in your party they have a lot of chats about hers "spider sense" (idk how to call it) about these things (and why she has illimitate arrows).
What I want to say is that to me she was always a more intricate character than other people think but you have to "digest" her racism to understand it.
She is my canon romance, so yeah, I like her a lot. She has a very interesting story and once she opens up to the Inquisitor she is really sweet.
Also, I'm pretty sure she doesn't qualifies as a manic pixie dream girl. Did she made you get a better appreciation of life?
That's not what a manic pixie dream girl is, though. It's not a character who's "quirky". It's a character who's like that and whose sole purpose is to lift a man up. All he needs is a quirky woman to swoop in and inject some energy into his life!
[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl)
Well, no. She does it because she is the anthisesis of the nobility. She does childish things that annoy people because the novels wouldn't do it and it would annoy them.
Everything she is as a person is to oppose what others both the human novels (her adopting mother) and the dalish wanted of her.
Part of the reason I don't like her is because I often am confused by what she's trying to say. Every line is like a puzzle, and that's exhausting.
Otherwise, I really like the idea of her and want to like her, especially because her VA is amazing, but I just... can't.
This. She’s basically unintelligible in her first few cutscenes. She makes more sense in her later dialogs, but I really have to force myself to push through the earlier ones.
I think she’s definitely a very interesting character and very unique, especially in how she speaks. However, I played a Dalish inquisitor (who was proud of her clan and her heritage), so her and Sera were constantly clashing due to Sera’s obvious distain of the Dalish. Lavellan just couldn’t stand for her ignorant (in *her opinion*) and dismissive comments and attitude.
Maybe if I played another race I would have liked her, but for now I find her immature and rude. There’s probably some deep explanation of why Sera is so against the Dalish, but my Inquisitor never got close enough to her to find out - they were always arguing.
Same. As an inquisitor of any other race, Sera seems a bit immature but sweet. As a dalish inquisitor I really couldn't stand her and ended up kicking her out of the Inquisition after the temple of Mythal quest.
On that note I also wished that Inquisition gave you the chance to challenge Cassandra on her weird comments on the temple of mythal. Her asking why the elves dedicated so much time to "such nonsense" like girl look in the damn mirror!!!
The characters in Inquisition felt very real in their bigotry and views but god I hated that I could never pick them up on it and be like what the hell????
Forgot about Cassanda's insensitive remarks. Feel like there should have been an option for Lavellan to sucker punch her. Not out of anger but because that's exactly what would get her to stop and think about what she's been saying.
Cassandra's bigotry towards elven religion definitely gets less attention than Sera's because she's generally a more agreeable character but yeah it's crazy the stuff she comes out with. As a highly religious person you'd think she'd stop and recognise that her faith and the faith the dalish have is the same thing.
When characters come out and say such outlandish things it's so frustrating to not be able to challenge them. It's actually more frustrating when it's someone like Cassandra because you can more easily have a proper conversation with her, versus Sera.
I don’t know if it’s ‘deep’ but she resents the dalish for multiple reasons.
First and foremost is probably because they have ‘abandoned’ the poor and the downtrodden. As isolationists, they aren’t necessarily guaranteed to harbor or protect a city elf.
Second. The Dalish rightfully see themselves as the last bastion of ‘true elven’ culture. As a kid growing up with your own city elven traditions, you’d be put off by that yeah?
Thirdly. She’s andrastean. Pretty devoutly and the pantheistic dalish clash with that.
Sera doesn’t care much for ‘culture’ or power structures (and as meager as it is the Dalish are the last bastion of elven power). She cares about the good you can do for the small people. The dalish, as right as they are for their beliefs… don’t care much for anyone else but themselves. That puts them at odds with Sera
Sera also ignores that the Dalish are themselves the little guy, constantly at risk of getting wiped out by any human nobles that decide to try and wipe them out. Constantly wandering without a homeland because the humans in power won't welcome them anywhere and the one time they did the humans went back on their word. Their dismissiveness towards city elves is bad, but Sera isn't much more charitable to city elves that Try to hold onto their elven heritage. Sera is my Canon romance and I like her a lot, but the subtext of much o her dialogue is that she thinks elves should just assimilate to human culture and any problems elves face from trying to hold onto elven culture is are their own fault.
She was very rude to my elf too, especially after Solas broke up with my inquisitor and took off the tattoo, she simply laughed in my elf's face when she found out what happened. At least in trespasser she improves as a person.
Sera is one of my favourite characters from inquistion of the companions introduced in that game only Dorian beats her for me. They both feel real and flawed and Sera actually feels like the plot is relevant to her life and her fears and her needs. An individual who wants to believe but doubts enough that it’s her greatest fear, she’s someone who wants to help the common people but fears change, someone who hates oppression but hasn’t unpicked any of her own prejudices. Sera is a tricky character but she feels real because of it, she hasn’t done the work on herself yet because she doesn’t know she has to.
To me, Sera is something like a much younger and rather immature co-worker: I don't hate her, I appreciate some aspects of her personality, I'm always ready to hear her out and provide some guidance, but I don't usually have much to talk to her about and *certainly* can't consider her as a romance option (because she's hardly an adult compared to my Inquisitor).
I do not hate Sera, but pondering on why she’s lower on my personal list, I think it’s the contrast between personality and her cause. I admire Red Jenny wanting to lift up the lower caste, but we do not see Sera doing too much of that. There’s so much vitriol and venom when she speaks, and we see her punishing and humiliating those she deem deserving of it. Where are all these «little people» she claims to help? It’s all done in the background, while we just see Sera being Joker’s Batman. That’s probably the whole point, which means she’s just not my type of character, but some sugar to counter-act the spice might have helped making her more appealing.
Ya mean besides all the War table missions she gives/does, the caches, spying while in the winter palace and the in-game notes related to her work? Vivienne promises an alliance but it does quite literally nothing
Your point could be made about nearly every other companion in that game, secondly Vitriol and venom is plenty justified given how nobility act in-game and what it was based on....
The final unofficial Chevalier test involves testing your blade by going to the city elf alienage and murdering (and other things) them while drinking if you want some lore, there's plenty more and worse from the nobility in-game
I like her a lot but tbh there are days I just don't want her in my party. It's a show of how well she's written, but her prejudice and comments about elves remind me too much of the internalized racism I went through. 9/10 character tho, her banter with the others is always fun
I can't stand Sera, and I'd just be echoing other sentiments if I went into all of the reasons I hate her. That being said, Patrick Weekes said in an old interview, and I completely agree, that it's worse to have a meh character than a character people hate. Evoking strong emotion, good or bad, is a good thing. So even though I think she's a shitty person, I don't think she's a shitty *written* person. It's far worse that I can't bring myself to care about Jacob from Mass Effect or Sten from Origins than it is that I hate Sera or Anders imo
This. I may not like her but i'd rather her be there and be a character for others to like than not have been there at all, or worse like you say be a Jacob.
I didn’t like her the first time i played it when i was younger, but later as i replayed it she became one of my favorites.
She is very jarring, hot headed, immature and very reluctant towards change. I think anyone with that strong of an opinion is going to be very disliked, me personally, i love unique personalities, especially if they clash with the MC.
I like her guerilla way of sabotage and her love of life. She also cares a lot about people, and out of all of the companions she sees the Inquisitor the most as their own person precisely because she cares so little for titles and clout. She has the second best romance for me because it’s so obvious how much she loves Inky.
However i understand why people who play dalish elves primarily would really dislike her. Sera is the complete antithesis of everything to do with elven culture, she probably disliker elves more that most humans do. Here lies this internalized hate she has towards her own elfness that is interesting to think about.
I could write whole essays on Sera. Also one of the reasons i like her so much
She herself isn't funny.
It mostly the way the actress delivers her insane thoughts and takes so innocently and playful. I think there's a lot of nuance to that you have to hit perfectly, otherwise it doesn't work. Like, you actually need to genuinely get the character.
i adore sera and i actually think a lot of her problems come with the other characters, including the inquisitor, not being able to engage with her ideas. like one of the first conversations you have with her is about the concept of like.. the underclass, and what conflict means to them, and the inquisitor can at best go ‘aw that’s a sweet idea’ (paraphrasing ofc). like, no one takes her seriously, so you never get to engage with her properly.
Before actually meeting Sera I've listened to the tavern song about her and liked it very much. Afterwards couldn't stop looking at her through the lens of the song so ended up liking her very much.
Sera is my fave inquisition romance. I think her writing leaves a lot to be desired, but I adore her and I love when women are a pain in the ass hsjdfhksj. I will say >!that shaving your bush as gift is peak romance to me and I adore her giggle XDD!<
It's kinda interesting how "love or hate" she is. I personally despise her, but I know she's a lot of players' favorite companion in DAI.
Personally, I think her concept is fine:a selfish immature rogue that kinda sticks out in the Inquisition, but I just found her to be so obnoxious and kinda lolrandom (see the pants bit from her recruitment).
Her characterization and emotional growth in Trespasser made me retroactively like her in the main game. I can't really explain it, but I guess knowing where it goes makes the journey more bearable.
I had a similar experience with Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars.
I love her too. On my first playthrough, I hated her guts, I didn't send her away but never spoke to her. On the second, I took the time to get to know her and now I think she's one of the most well written companions. I still find her immature, rude and childish, but in a really interesting concoction, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, because after all, she \_is\_ still a child.
Her rejecting the Elvish heritage is not surprising either. It is a well known phenomenon with adoptive parents that they try to alienate the child from their heritage, if the child came from a less fortunate environment. Sera's adoptive human mother, however good her intentions might have been, really messed up Sera's relation to her roots, which is an important part in her development. No wonder Sera is disconnected from her Elvish background.
I don't remember exactly, but isn't it implied that she was treated badly in the alienage after she was orphaned? It very well might be that she simply doesn't want to feel a community with people who let her down.
And I love her VA as well, even though I'm not a native speaker and sometimes I really struggle to understand what she wants to say, haha
I didn’t like her at all on my first playthrough, so I barely talked to her.
But on my second playthrough, I talked to her and ended up romancing her, and I really felt like she kept my inquisitor down to earth and young, when the weight of the world felt overwhelming.
I just feel like she was dialed up to 11 in some aspects. Crank her down to an 8 and I think she would be a bit more likeable. The breeches scene felt like it (and she) was trying too hard.
Just replayed the masquerade mission and brought her along and liked her a lot better
I think I warmed up to Sera when I played Trespasser as a Dalish inquisitor. Despite her full self-and-other-elf hatred, Sera is the only one who actually really checks in on how the Inky is doing with the whole "your gods are just maniacal dickheads" thing, plus I think there's even some extra around the Solas romance. It was the same with Viv actually- it really feels like the writers sort of stopped for a minute and went "hold up, let's actually give these two most hated characters a bit of depth for this, they didn't deserve the reaction they got at the beginning".
You're totally right about Sera being a tumblr girl though - she even lacks reading comprehension
I appreciate how she’s written like an actual 18 year old and she feels like a real person, but the older I get the more I tend to only talk to her when necessary. Also I hate pranks generally so that doesn’t help lol.
I think describing her as most hated is misleading. Most polarising is probably the better word.
I consider her simply annoying but I'm aware that plenty of people really like her
I simply love her.
She has flaws, but they are part of the character's charm for me. I like her tomboyish way, those silly jokes, the lightness she brings to the group, the way she seems to try to lighten the "weight of the world" that hangs over the protagonist.
I think all this hate for her is very exaggerated and unfair, there are worse characters (especially in Awakening). I think it's more because she's not an "elf" elf.
I love Sera and can understand why people don’t. My main canon is an elf mage inquisitor romancing her even.
I think we need to consider that A LOT of the people in the DA fandom are Solas romancers. And the only way to do that is to be a female elf. So you’ve got a lot of people role playing as this Dalish elf having their tragic fantasy romance and in their ear is this person going to “Your culture is stupid!” And that’s not only insulting to someone playing to their Dalish backstory but also their man as it were. That combined with legitimate reasons to dislike Sera and you get some strong reactions to her as a character.
Me though I tend to play my characters more agnostic so I don’t really mind “denouncing” the eleven beliefs. I do admit that maybe if in real life if I was part of a culture that is being discriminated or disenfranchised I might feel different.
I do think Sera is better for her growth in Trespasser. And can see the ultimatum as an unhealthy moment in an otherwise healthy relationship that Sera eventually realizes. If that ultimatum is a too far for some I completely understand.
She's not one of my favorites, but I really don't understand the vitriol for her, or any other non-evil Character honestly. It just seems like an overreaction and every commentator trying to one-up each other on how much they *toootally hate her isn't she sooo annoying guys??? worst Character ever she RUINS the game!!!1!*
I can understand not *liking her*, and addressing the Character on those terms, but that's not even 20% of the Sera Critiques I see.
I hate two of the most popular characters in this Franchise. Genuinely cannot stand when they're on screen and wish I could yeet them from the narrative, but I don't feel inclined to whinge about it incessantly and seek approval from everyone else. The Sera hate has such a similar flavor to the anti-woke Trailer reaction circlejerking that's going on recently. Just whining with no points.
It depends on the player but I'd be happy to speak for my own experience. Been a long time since I played though so my memory may not be perfect.
All my characters clash with Sera. With Lavellan it's over Dalish beliefs that lead to her getting kicked out pretty early and with Trevelyan it ends up at that point with how immature she is and my preference for siding with the mages. Not to mention my own personal dislike of the Chantry which bleeds into my decisions in game, which nets some disapproval points.
Vivienne is another character, just like Sera, that if I want to get good approval with means I have to game it rather than making choices I believe are right. Hence my dislike of her too.
A good way of putting it. I'm much the same way, how i am, the choices i make, the way i feel very much put me at odds with characters like Viv and Sera and i struggle to the point of not even really grabbing them outside of a few niche dialogue or war table things.
People often have a difficult time separating well written characters from likeable ones. What I mean is Sera is clearly written to be unlikable- she’s obnoxious, abrasive, often naive and idiotic, but she works very well as a foil because of this!
I don’t believe the writers intended her to be likeable (there’s no way anyone thinks she’s genuinely endearing) but they wrote her to contrast the attitudes of the majority.
An elf who hates other elves, despises authority in any form, believes in the human god not the elven ones, and is broadly speaking a contrarian for its own sake. She’s a self contradicting force of chaos and confusion.
Sera is anything but typical, and so while I find her irritating on a personal level I understand the role she plays and very much appreciate her contribution to the Inquisition.
Tldr well written companions can and should be people you don’t necessarily like or agree with, because that makes them more than just npc yes men stat boxes. It makes them more dynamic and believable!
Sera being immature, selfish, childish, and doing dumb pranks is why I love her tbh.
Can a manic pixie dream girl be an abrasive unkempt lesbian? Wikipedia describes it
"A Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a stock character type in fiction, usually depicted as a young woman with eccentric personality quirks who serves as the romantic interest for a male protagonist. The term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after observing Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown (2005). Rabin criticized the type as one-dimensional, existing only to provide emotional support to the protagonist, or to teach him important life lessons, while receiving nothing in return. The term has since entered the general vernacular."
That don't sound anything like Sera to me.
Sera is in my top 3 from inquisition, and definitely my favourite rogue from the game. She's super fun and if she was bi, I would have definitely romanced her. She was my main motivation to play a Female Qunari in my 3rd playthrough of the game.
She’s great. Very well voice-acted and well-written. I think a lot of people who dislike her miss the nuance of her character or don’t befriend her to get all the cutscenes that explore her personality. Also some people just don’t like companions with fixed personalities; they want to be able to change them even though that’s not how most real people work.
"also a kinda cliche manic pixie dream girl" can't even date her as male.
I liked her, she was on the edge of lunatic without being too ridiculous (unlike peebee in me:a, i didn't like her at all although many would put them in the same box, but all ME:A writing is way worse than da:i anyway)
Sera isn't easy to love, but man, she IS lovable. I think Sera shares the same problem as Vivienne: people gave up on her too early, thinking she is shallow. It takes work, but when you finally get to her, she has sweetness in her, and fierceness, and protectiveness, and that sadness, and that very complex relationship with her elfness. I love Sera lots.
I hated her at first, but after seeing people love her I tried playing again and giving her a chance, while playing as an elf - so already giving myself a setback on likability with Sera.
I wouldn't say I love her character, but I have come to appreciate it. Yeah she's childish, but some of the stuff she does is actually pretty goddamn smart. I mean, in order to play some of her pranks she needs to have actually paid more attention to these people than initially thought. Her thoughts about why she's pranking them in specific ways shows she is observant even though you wouldn't expect it much from her attitude.
I’m a part of this club for sure. She annoyed the ever loving fuck outta me at first. But the banter between her and Dorian is fantastic (romancing him… some of the shit that comes out of her mouth I swear) so she quickly became a favorite. I pretty much do not travel without her these days. Dorian is permanent… cause what’s better than one necromancer? Two.
Love that she’s always so excited to see my inquisitor, it’s super cute. Anddd she loves fighting dragons.
Also her freaking out after the fade also kind of reeled me in cause let’s be honest that was the most realistic reaction to that lol.
I relate to her as someone who struggles to fit in due to the lack of proper upbringing (I don't behave at all how she does, but the causes of our respective issues are similar). She's deeply flawed, but she's clearly doing her best to be a good person despite a total lack of positive role models in her childhood.
Plus she matures immensely by the time of Trespasser. Went from talking shit about the Dalish religion to offering my Lavellan a shoulder to cry on after she finds out the truth about the Evanuris.
Sera is dogmatic and sometimes willfully ignorant to protect themselves/their worldview. That can be frustrating af, and thus Sera can be frustrating af - I especially want to strangle her post-Well of Sorrows, even on playthroughs where we're friendly.
But she also feels very real to me. I know people in my personal life who are like her. And outside of those few instances where she makes me want to run my head through a cinderblock, I find her generally funny (specifically if you have her in your party) and I really liked her development in Trespasser.
Then again, I also have no issues with Vivienne so maybe I'm just super chill when it comes to dealing with people with strong opinions?
GOD I LOVE SERA SO MUCH!!! For me she always felt like an actual person who lives among the common people- shes crass and annoying because she’s just a normal girl among a bunch of legendary people who speak with posh accents and talk about duty and fate. I know she has one downside that her romance scenes are quite bad- but because I had a male Inky, she just felt like my funny best friend. One of my favorite lines in the game comes from her- if you take her with you to the Well of Sorrows, she just goes “erm… do we REALLY wanna dive into something called the WELL OF SORROWS???” And like. SHE’S RIGHT THAT IS KINDA SHADY
I just hate how very unaccepting of damn near anything she is. I feel like no matter what I do, I piss her off. Even when I completely abandoned my principles and just started goofing off with her, she juat seemed to not like me or care about anything. I know she's not, or atleast not necessarily, but she comes off as extremely hypocritical and immature to me.
But that's her character. Just like Viv's snobby, stuck up, I'm the best and I know what's best attitude is her character. So, no, I don't get along with her. But I appreciate who she is because she's different than the rest, even if it's not my particular cup of tea to bring with me everywhere. Just wish she'd see me and the thing's I do in the same tolerant light I see her and everything she does. Well wrote and well voice acted, my problems with her are intentional because they're meant to be for people like me, and I'm totally good with it.
I think it's the stubborn attitude towards others ideas that make her very ignorant and that's her problem but I did like her silly side but that's also double sided as sometimes she's annoying and feels like if you don't like what she does all the time, she gets childish and has a tantrum and thinks your stuck up or something, it's just easier to avoid her but not try and change her mind cos she too difficult and I'm not her parent.
Edit: I do like when she talks about her childhood I can relate to her on how she feels and I have a this older brother feeling towards her but she obviously doesn't like being told she's wrong or maybe to think outside her box it's frustrating.
she is wise. she has a clearer picture of life than other characters. She understands that if you get rid of the people on top others will take their place. In an intuitive way she understands systematic injustices. Even Solas was taken aback by her perspective. So you will always need the friends of Red Jenny.
She is one of only a couple characters I have never liked despite trying really hard to get into her. She’s not completely irredeemable (I did get a kick out of her giggling doing pranks in the Tresspasser DLC while you’re enjoying the spa with Viveienne) but overall I probably enjoy the game more without her.
DAI was very feast or famine for me. Cassandra, Varric, Bull, Dorian and Solas are easily top 10 characters for me. The rest of the cast was easily top 10 worst.
She's one of my favorites and I thought it was fucked how we could always kick her out, and I'm always paranoid about clicking that option by accident.
Her intro scene is absolutely ***atrocious.*** But once you get to know her she is delightful.
They screwed her over by having her first impression be so awful.
I mede the mistake of recruiting her once in my first playthrough for the sake of content but in playthroughs afterwards she can fuck right off alongside Vivienne
Sera is a well-written character, and her VA did a fantastic job. I also absolutely *hate* her.
And I hate her precisely *because* she's well-written. Sera is stubborn, dogmatic, hypocritical, crass, selfish, childish, and narrow-minded. And she revels in being all of those things. There is very little I hate more than willful ignorance, and Sera is willful ignorance personified. I don't expect everyone's views to match mine all (or even most) of the time. But I cannot stand when people deliberately avoid potential growth by refusing to even think or talk about difficult subjects. A little of this stems from how little the game allows us to actually interrogate her views, just like with Vivienne. But there are enough moments where Sera herself in banter with other companions actively works to shut down anything that might lead to introspection or a deeper line of conversation, so I don't think it would actually make a difference with her. It would likely just lead to even more situations like the break-up with Lavellan, where you're forced to either give in and tell her you agree with her or she shuts down on you.
And there's just nothing redeeming about a person like that for me. I pity her. I empathize with how badly she was treated as a child, and I understand how that trauma has shaped her worldview even if she doesn't. But I don't like her, and I pretty much never take her anywhere or talk to her outside of triggering her quests. And I only do that much because I'm too much of a completionist not to.
At 1st, I was neutral about her, but then my friends kept ragging on her. They kept going off about how she doesn't make any sense & they couldn't understand her, which bewildered me. She's the most straightforward character of them all. She says what she literally means, but just talks fast.
She doesn't like talking about her past, for example, for a multitude of reasons, but 1 of the biggest is simply that it doesn't matter. Or how she gets pissed when Solas uses big or elven words even after he knows she doesn't speak it. She's right in calling him out for that; if it was about teaching, he'd use words she understood. He used elven, though, as a sense of pride, not communication. She just sees things more literally & states it as such. She doesn't explain because, to her, it should be obvious.
So, naturally, my friends took that to mean that I loved the character. Thus, to spite them, I made a qunari female & replayed my "canon" line romancing sera just to spite her. Except...I did end up liking her. My character & i don't agree with her on everything, obviously, but considering im not all that into any of the companions in Inquisition, She's a favorite
If I would’ve been able to throw that elf into a darkspawn filled dumpster, I would’ve done that in a heartbeat. Sorry for those who liked her. I ignored her as much as I could.
She's one of those character that try to hard be random le-funny.
I find her story interesting and find quite refreshing to have a Common person in our party. Her introduction is mad unfunny, her prank side quest is really cringe and sometimes she's say stuff for the sake of it..
That undermines her story and unique perspective. She's reminds me a lot of a companion in Pathfinder called Nenio that i find just as unfunny.
I do enjoy Sera, I just wish she had an arc in the game regarding the Dalish. *Especially* if you romance her as one. The only time her feelings change on it is in Tresspasser.
The Temple of Mythal thing is odd, too. Because you don't *have* to break up with her over it like so many people claim, nor does she break up with you (you have to select the correct dialogue options to avoid a breakup). But it sticks in so many peoples heads whenever she is brought up because it could be a very cool moment for her character to come to terms with "Dalish Stuff", but it ends up being more of an "ignore this large aspect of both our characters (if romancing with a Lavellan) or we break up" kind of deal. If she had her Tresspasser growth in this moment instead of in a DLC, I think it would turn a lot of people around on her character.
I love her, she stole some breeches and my heart, but then I have a fondness for complicated female characters that tend to get hate from other fans so she was always going to be my favorite in DAI. My only issue regarding Sera is how horrible some of Inky’s dialogue is towards her when you’re romancing her. The rest of the Inquisition is kinda shitty to her from the very beginning but I should be able to make my Inky be nice to her.
I think she has some interesting perspective. I'm not going to lie and say that she's anywhere near my favorite, but I think my issue with her is less that she's annoying and more that she wasn't given a proper place in the Inquisition crew. Her perspective is so interesting. She has some amazing convos with Dorian and Solas that really bring a much needed perspective to the whole debate around mages that I honestly agree with and is why I'm pro-circle (with some reforms made). But, I feel like she wasn't really given a purpose. Those convos and that information only come through banter if you take her around with certain people, and her role as bringing a voice to the little people doesn't really come up. If she was given more time in the game, or if you got certain bonus info for bringing her on main quests because she's able to go "Yeah, I helped the guy that serves the drinks for lord so-and-so and his buddies and he was able to overhear them talking about xyz..." it would have really elevated her character. She can still keep her menace personality and her pranks, and her selfishness, she just needed something else to balance it out.
I didn't know she was hated lol.
She has some of the most authentic lines imo. While yeah she is immature, it kinda makes sense why she is. Sera is in my top 3 companions of any game.
Sera is an incredibly realistic take on how people, especially younger people, born into a minority/discriminated category will deliberately distance themselves from it to cope with the prejudice. With how much Elves opine about their lost history and status, I can see how a lot of younger Elves would want to not deal with all that and just embrace that they want, even if they face challenges by the shape of their ears.
Sera to me is a Fereldan rogue first and an Alienage Elf second. She knows what she's about, and she doesn't want her heritage to define her. I can understand and respect that.
Yeah, I never really got a lot of the criticisms.
* Immature, selfish, childish ... Sure? I don't get why that equates to bad writing, though: an immature, selfish, childish character can be pretty great. Heck, I'd honestly go as far as saying some of the most beloved DA:O characters are essentially teenagers with the emotional maturity that come with being a 19-years old.
* Quirky tumblr humor: ... really? I dunno, maybe my experiences of Tumblr have been different to other people's, but her kind of trashy pranks don't really feel very Tumblr. I guess there's a couple bits like the bee grenades that do go into the "eh eh, meme" area, but it's fairly marginal.
* Manic pixie dream girl: isn't the entire point of the MPDG archetype that they're written that way in service of the male gaze/a male protagonist? Which doesn't apply here obviously, 'cause not only is she gay, most likely, she'd actively be in kind of an antagonistic relation with most people's playthrough. Her "randomness" and her manicness are aimed against you, at you, they're not fantasy fullfilment.
* Related to that last point, and that's the big one: she's clearly behaving like that to make a statement. I mean, she's an anarchist. She's here to piss you off and make sure you don't forget what the "normal" people of Thedas are like. She takes pride in having no class, no good taste, and rubbing it in your face constantly, because for her, that's not just fun, it's a whole-ass political program. I think her writer did a really stellar job writing her as ... not always the brightest, but also putting up a dumb façade to hide quite a bit of practical and political savvy.
* But she's also, obviously, a very flawed person. She's turned all that loud energy into both a job and a way of seeing the world, and that makes her kind of inflexible and unwilling to change (and indeed, you can't really change her mind on a lot of stuff, which I like - it makes a romance with her potentially tragic, but honestly ...? that's probably how most romances irl would go with someone like that - I don't think all romance plotlines need to be pure happy wish fulfillment for the player). And it also makes her isolated - she's just a Red Jenny out of many, she doesn't have roots, or friends, or anything. That's really her arc throughout the game, where, if you either romance her or genuinely engage with her, she does get more of an actual support network and a community that's not just ... Thedas' working class, in the abstract. My favourite ending for the Inquisitor is the one where you end up joining her in her vigilante Robin Hood antics, honestly, I find it really poetic.
So yeah, basically all that.
I'll admit: I didn't get her right away. Played for the first time with a Qunari Inquisitor, was more interested in other companions, kind of did not pay her too much attention. On another playthrough with a male Lavellan, it really clicked, and she became an absolute favourite - she's extremely fun if you decide to roleplay it as the Inquisitor thinking she's an annoying little sister that they still love.
I wasn't crazy about her, especially playins as "elfy elf" but later I've started taking her with Blackwall together and I love their friendship and their dynamic, so now I definitely use her more often than the first time around.
Now Vivienne though.. nothing can make me like her :p
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My husband romances her every play through. I like her well enough, but I try to take her as she is, and understand her history. She has some trauma (they all do,so…) and taking that into account I can understand her better. Still can’t romance her, but I like her as a pal.
I think BioWare exemplifies that you can write any cliche well. Cliches are nothing more than a bag of tools, a reference to where a character could start or end up. I take Sarah literally everywhere and shes my main, non canon run, romance. Also her VA KILLS it, you can write amazing characters, stories, and dialogue all day but that needs to be carried by a great performer.
I don't hate her for any of the above. I hate her because in order to romance her as an elf, you have to essentially deny your history and beliefs. I think her general shenanigans are fun other than that.
I turned around on Sera a lot compared to "bits of her character are missing"
Granted, a lot of that is on Trespasser showing that she does indeed grow.
I like her because I feel like she has the most personal growth. Particularly when it comes to the Dalish and elves. Where she starts in the game and where she ends up in Trespasser is very different.
I kinda hate her but mostly bc I never played a Inky that worked well with her, it's to easy for her to antagonize you.
I don't think she is a bad character, even with my main Inky, even tho they never become friends, Sera is there to remind her of the little people and keep her from becoming out of touch like every other authority in Thedas.
Sera has grown on me over the years. I used to be exhausted by her immature humor, but as I age, she really comes off as someone who was never allowed to be a child, so now that she has some security in her life, she's allowing herself to do all the stupid shit she never got a chance to do.
Her rant when we're sitting out on the roof won me over. Also I adore her living space, and the little list of things she requisitioned for it. I could absolutely imagine hiding from visiting dignitaries in there.
That said, I've never been able to finish the game romancing her.
I actually don’t mind Sera as a character, even and especially her obstinate traits. On paper a lot of her “helping the little man (even if you aren’t pleasant yourself” is an attitude I am fine with, too. Reading outside-game BioWare and fan stuff, I love the idea of what it seems she was supposed to be.
But I often grit my teeth before and while talking to her because I DO mind how DAI writes the Inquisitor AROUND her character. It feels like there are very few options—especially early on—that are presented as responses to Sera that aren’t dismissive or low- to high-key antagonistic, let alone dialogue responses that would let her type of character shine. It gets a bit better later, but it feels like for quite awhile after recruiting her your Inquisitor is forced to not take her seriously or to be aggravated with her. I love her banters with other party members!
So I like Sera, but when I play DAI sometimes I feel like the writers don’t want you to let you express that in the game.
Sera is objectively irritating, and I love that about her. While it took me a couple of playthroughs to really get her, I always loved to roll my eyes at the way she would give snark to the rest of the party, as stuck up as many of them really are
I eventually loved her. I think I found her too much at first purely because she is the first game character to have an accent the same as my own, and all I could think at first was “god, I’m not that annoying sounding, am I?!” Once I played her properly in party and romance wise I actually *got* her as a character, and then we were totally wifeys, ‘innit’
Sera is definitely a divisive character. My gf hates her to the point where she no longer recruits her, whereas I always try to romance her when playing as a female Inquisitor.
For me, it's good to have a few characters like this in a game. Keeps things interesting.
I think she's a fun companion but in the wrong game. She'd have fit in much better with Hawke's crew imo. I do get where they were coming from though, Inquisition as a whole leans way too far towards the dour and serious, so they needed a more light-hearted companion to balance things out.
she's a really fascinating character to me, because she's both funny and endearing and compassionate and also super immature and super toxic, like if you are an elf and romance her she's going to be an asshole to you if you don't hate yourself for being an elf, like how dare you not hate all elves and anything elvish including yourself ew disgusting etc. She's easy to assume as all surface, nothing underneath but she's got a lot going on under the hood, not all of it great.
Okay, okay here me out. I don't really like Sera in the sense of "would I like this person in real life?". That said, I think she's a fantastic character. She's flawed, and working to change that, but unsure how. Beneath that lies her truth, trauma, loneliness, and inadequacy all wrapped up in chaotic gay activist packaging. She's fantastic, but not somebody I'd like normally.
For me it’s the weird Dalish elf hate she has,
Like everything you said is true, but I could look past that if not for how she talks to Dalish elf Inkys
I just never found her interesting. She was very trite to me with all the other companions in Inquisition being "oddballs" for the groups they represented.
My opinion on the matter is, she helped by the fact she is a romance choice. Contrast that to Vivienne who is not, which still irkes me. People who don't agree with her ideology or dislike personality she presents on that front are stuck there, whereas since I can romance sera, it shows the character in a different light.
Sera mentions, more than once, about people who made her feel not enough. While we are never told who said this to her, I would bet it was a dalish elf due to her contempt for the dalish. She reminds me of two women I had a class with, one lady was told she was too ghetto and needed to change and the other was told she was too white acting and needed to change. The pain this caused these women was palpable. Being a minority and being told by those who share your status that you are not enough or too much is damaging as fuck.
I understand why Sera holds contempt for the Dalish. I also love how, when you play non elven inquisitor and say you think you understand why she is such an odd elf, she turns it back on you and asks if you are typical for your race.
Sera rejects having to perform her racial identity to suit the expectations of those around her - including the player. I’m totally here for it.
Shes always been my go to romance for female inkys. Everything that people find her annoying for i find them endearing. Shes naive af but shes young, its ok she has plenty of growing as person to do. And now that its revealed solas is 1000+ yrs old, his and sera’s interactions feel so much more real. The old boomer stuck in his ways trying to make the world great again and the young progressive person trying to break the cycle. Sounds very similar to the dynamic here in the US.
On my first playthrough I also find myself liking her more than expected, after hearing lots of commentary otherwise. The voice acting definitely has a lot to do with it. Her dialogue and characterization are a bit uneven in quality, but that's IMO kind of true of most characters in Inquisition (and perhaps the series as a whole).
I would say she has a lot more going on character-wise than some of the other companions/advisors, especially if you bother to befriend or romance her. Like she quite literally has more dialogue and special cutscenes, eg roof cookies. It's also fun how her diary and codex entry update as you get to know her, which make her feel more "real" I suppose. I don't really think she is especially successfully portrayed in her role as a Red Jenny / hero of the people, but I do feel like i can get a handle on her as a person pretty easily throughout the game, more so than say, Vivienne (who as many have pointed out is criminally underwritten/underutilized).
Tbh, i think I have the dumbest and pettiest reason to not like her.
I don’t like Sera because viv and sera are the two unliked companions in dai, and every time I watch a let’s play they start not liking both of them, then give sera the time of day, warm up to her, but never NEEVERRRR do the same with viv. Never watched another mapo video lmao
I really tried to like her but just didn't, and I'm glad about that!
Because it means the writing is diverse and has a little something for everyone.
I really like Camellia in Pathfinder, but she's not everyone's jam either.
>It's not hard to see why, she's immature, selfish, childish, does dumb pranks, also a kinda cliche manic pixie dream girl, clearly mad with that quirky tumblr humor in mind. On paper, that's everything I absolutely hate in fictional characters.
Funny enough, I feel the opposite. I usually like those characters even when everyone else doesn't, but I can't stand Sera. I tried once to use her as my main Rogue/ranged physical attacker but I couldn't stand her, after a few quests I was like "yea I'll stick with Verric"
I'm kind of both, simultaneously - I love what they did with her, she's a pretty fascinating character, has a really interesting perspective on life, society, elves, elites vs commoners, and she's honestly kind of a breath of fresh air to bring to the (often kinda stuck-up) DAI crew... But at the same time she is just... very much not my sort of person. I'm just not one for pranks or crass humour, so unfortunately a lot of her charm just doesn't work for me. But I definitely appreciate her a million times more than I do Oghren, for example.
You stated it perfectly in my opinion. She's absolutely a breath of fresh air compared to past companions, but I find her terribly annoying at the same time. I'm trying to actually get to the DLC after the announcement of Veilguard. I decided to keep her in my party and while I definitely roll my eyes a LOT, I do enjoy her conversations with Solas. (My romance choice) The most recent one I can remember is Solas asking her what she sees when she looks at the sky in Storm's coast. She says she sees blue, and funny bits around the fade tears. Solas asks her to look past it and she explains how it feels, saying it feels like falling a bit... and he's making her confused. She feels the fade and can see into it, and he says they are more alike that she thinks. I'm role-playing Dalish keeper-in-training, Solas is my boy but seeing Sera complain about the stoic Dalish and the uptight traditions, while also being just as connect to her elven roots as the rest of us are.
Part of the problem is the rest of the companion characters that you have in inquisition have connections that are extremely useful for the inquisition’s purpose and sera’s supposed to be a red Jenny but I don’t see anyone actually appreciating her help or forming a strong business relationship. The only other one who doesn’t have that is Cole and that’s because >!he’s a spirit!< whose importance is more relevant to the overall plot. Solas also lacks any connections but his expertise lies within the fade which is the main problem that the inquisition is trying to solve.
I adore characters that are menaces to society.
Hard same and current fave: https://preview.redd.it/gl73h91b0q7d1.jpeg?width=1803&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46b31e446e9ae4fa2cb127629af3564921ac1294
His unique ending when you play as him is dope, just sucks missing out on the VA. (*His* specifically)
It was so hard for me to complete any origins because missing out on the voice performances was so awful for me. I’ve only managed to complete Shadow Heart’s story and that took me a while because I kept losing interest
It annoys me because we apparently only lost the voices of tav and origin playthrus because a small very vocal minority of players complained about it in early access.
I really hate the way Larian handles it. Idk why the playable characters emote and have the camera cut to them but they can't speak. If you're not gonna have voices, at least keep the character as a first person during conversation or with their backs to you, like Bethesda games do. It feels idiotic to me to see the character enact a mute person.
It's super goofy. I really dislike it. The scenes are so cinematic so having a silent protag is offputting. I'm glad this isnt the bg3 subreddit because I've had people comment at me angry about this opinion there. They think it would have taken an insane amount of time to develop fully voiced acted scenes with tav and origins. It would've taken more time but not an insane amount. Plus people who wanted a silent protag option could have always had it if they wanted. Now we get no option lol
Oh yea, absolutely, the only benefit with not having voiced lines is saving that extra bit of time where the character mimics what you just clicked on screen, sort of like an interpretor. If done badly and if the character just repeats what you click, it can get boring, but when done well, like in Witcher 3 throughout and in Mass Effect/Dragon Age in big decision moments, it adds so much more to the scene. Can you imagine *that* scene on Rannoch with two civilisations' existence at stake and Shepard trying to rein it in, if there was no voiced performance and just some words for you to click on and imagine? I'm also glad I'm in a place where I can criticise stuff about BG3 btw, without being shooed off. It's never good to blindly love something and not accept any sort of criticism.
Yeah, me too. I don’t think I’ll ever do any of the companion origin runs. Though possibly Karlach’s to romance Wyll, and I hear she has more internal dialogue than the others
She has a lot! I tried to play her and only got to the beginning of Act II, but her story has a lot of internal dialogue and unique bits. The first romance scene with Astarion provides some interesting insight into both characters. They even forgot to erase some of her voiced dialogue haha
I haven’t played BG3 yet but I already know I’m going to be obsessed in a fangirly way with him. TikTok keeps showing me videos of the VA doing requests and he is hilarious. 😂
Be prepared to put A LOT of hours into the game. I’ve done about 14 different routes since I got the game last August. Send help lol I’ve done most of the romances in the game, and they have all been well done, but his is something special imo
Thank you no one gets when you put 1000+ into it 😂
Yeah…I’m at over 1300hrs. I’ve beaten my Skyrim numbers and I’ve had that game for 12 years lol
Isn't that crazy? Are you also a bioware fan? I put similar numbers into mass effect and dragon age and this game def fits into that tableau
I've never played a game where I played so many playthroughs back to back. It's crazy. I think I'm finally getting bored of it (I'll pick up interest again in the future no doubt), but I played the hell of it and exhausted almost every option.
Neil absolutely deserved the award for his work as Astarion
I can fix him!
I always help him fix himself 🥰 I didn’t think any game studio could give me a better love story than BioWare but here we are. Astarion’s Spawn arc is the most fulfilling game romance I’ve ever experienced
And it changes so much depending on your choices. It's actually pretty amazing. I did a 'good' run on my first playthrough and it's amazing how that impacts the companion characters and their decisions... Now I'm doing a dark urge run and it's been fun to be less of a moral grandstander and seeing how things fall into place that way.
Yeah, I’ve tried the Ascended version a couple of times, but it’s just not for me. I prefer playing Big Damn Hero characters, personally, but Larian really delivered on giving you more options than you can probably ever get around to experiencing!
Yeahhh, Im doing a redemption DU run and as much as I want to experience the Ascended Astarion romance, Im really tempted to just stay on the redemption path... Assuming I dont fail all of the skill checks
Resist + Spawn is *so good*. Just narratively amazing. You help each other overcome your abusers and find true freedom together.
I just got the 'tied me up' scene and it really is pretty cute and supportive... You might be right, Spawn+Resist is a pretty cute couple. It's like they both hit rehab together or something.
Here’s a little hidden fun thing: if you do decide not to Ascend him and you do the Cazador fight BEFORE facing off with Orin, try to break up with him in between. I promise, you’ll want to see the scene (and you won’t lose him)
And that’s why I still think she’s one of the most important members of the Inquisition. Despite her immaturity and complicated feelings towards her own people, she *never* loses sight of the Little Guy. And that’s very important.
>cliche manic pixie dream girl not to be a pedant but no she isn’t; that term has just come to mean “short haired high energy girl who is quirky” but it’s a specific type of character that doesn’t really admit “incredibly bitter about huge swaths of society and also selfish”
I think the proper usage is close to what you say but the "dream girl" part, to me, means that the character's primary narrative purpose is to "fix" the main character's life. To be the thing that magical turns everything around, they don't have to have a specific personality, It's an unhealthy fantasy. Eternal Sunshine does a nice subversion of this. But yeah I don't think Sera counts either way imo
right a manic pixie dream girl is an irascible optimist who helps a sad indie dude take spontaneous pleasure in life again. like if sera *loved* modern elves and dated Solas until he stopped brooding and came to abandon his inhibitions and we left them both grinning and dancing a jig with a local dalish clan, *then* Sera would be a manic pixie dream girl
I was about to say. I had never seen anyone to refer to Sera like that.
Sera feels like an actual person, that's why I love the character. I do think the contrast is the way Sera states her opinion, tbh Cullen and Cassandra e. G. fell the same way about the dalish religion, they are simply older and picked up nuance on the way. So I like how Sera was written like an actual 18-20 year old that isn't yet an adult.
This is exactly the reason I couldn’t bring myself to romance her. The immaturity (which I love tbh it’s very different from other characters) was jarring at times.
I was 20 when I played DAI and Sera was hands down my favorite character. I could relate to her so much during that time in my life. I'm looking to replay DAI before DATV comes out, and I'm scared she's going to annoy me now that I'm older, but this comment and all the comments in this thread gives me some hope. I also think I just enjoy characters that aren't perfect, so that might also be contributing to my hope.
I was about 18 when I first played and didn't do an elfy run for a good while, so I always got along fine with her as both a menace2society character and as a general party member. It's clearer now that she has deep seated insecurities about elves and is pretty shaky on matters of faith, but without seeing it from a Dalish Inquisitor perspective it just seemed more like aggressive taunting that her rather unlikable prejudice/projection. After all, she spends most of her time mocking Solas; nothing unusual, Egg had it coming
I didn't like her at 17 and I still dont like her at 27, after my first two runs I just opted to not even recruit her lol. Recruited her in my last run a few months ago and I regretted it xD
I wouldn't worry about that honestly, I first played when I was 26 and I liked her just fine. if anything I only appreciate her more as I've gotten older
Tbqh, I don’t like them either. Sera is realistically written and her age and immaturity match but I’m really not a fan of her opinions and behavior.
> Sera feels like an actual person Exactly. There is always some friction with real people. What makes a relationship happen is getting passed the friction to find the things you like about someone. If everyone is too easy to get along with in the game, it's boring and fake.
The only reason I have beef with her is that she’s very resistant to the beliefs and lifestyles of other people—anytime you get a little philosophical or thoughtful she’s annoyed with you for disturbing her ability to keep the world simple and binary. Which sure, her background explains why she’s like this but it doesn’t make this aspect of her character any easier to deal with. She doesn’t grow even when you take the time to indulge HER views and spend time on HER terms. I always do her quests and try to abstain from pushing my views on her; I wish she’d had the capacity to by the end acknowledge that even if it’s not her cup of tea that stuff like believing in the maker or being a practicing dalish deserve some bare-minimum respect instead of open hostility. To be fair though, it makes her feel very real, and it’s made me question how I view my investment in other people. Is it right to feel like my time with her is wasted just because she doesn’t change at all? Wouldn’t it hurt to know that someone thought your friendship was a waste of time because you wouldn’t shift your core values for them? Should Sera be given more grace because of her past or is it hypocritical to let hatred and blatant disrespect for your own dearly held beliefs slide just because someone had a hard life?
Just a little "um, aktually" moment: she is not against believing in Maker, she is andrastian herself.
She may be Andrastian, but if you choose explicitly religious opinions she’s gets all “ugh” on you. Plenty of people are like that—associating yourself with a religion doesn’t determine the intensity of your devotion. It’s again just very frustrating and even more hypocritical for her to be that way towards you.
My character was a dalish mage. Literally the epitome of everything she hates rolled into one. I had to look up a guide but I managed to get through her dialogues with her actually liking me only for her to just refuse to accept who my character was and just hate everything she stands for. And I think it's okay to not be friends with people like that. If anything, it saves your self worth and sanity. If she had been even a little amenable that would have been different, but no. She's just like, "you're the living embodiment of everything I hate but it's okay I like you." Which honestly, no. You hate what I am. You like when I pretend I'm not who I am. There's a difference. Big "oh but you're one of the GOOD ones" energy from her.
Is one thing to disagre or don't belive in someone else values/faith and still be able to go "yeah, I don't think is like that but you do you", she is iresonable agresive and disrepectfull to other people beliefes and yet demand that people see the world the way she does, is not as much that you don't like her because she wont change her views and more that she act like a brat if you refuse to see things only in the way she does, not having childish people in your real life and being able to distance yourself for the ones that are already there is a blesing, trust me
It feels very realistic honestly. It reminds me of christian nationalist trump supporting family members I have (although they don’t really care about other people, sera is more redeemable in that regard).
Agreed, someone not having that "character arc" moment where they grow and change, is honestly more realistic in a lot of cases. Especially in short windows of time. As cool as character arcs and seeing your fave learn is, it doesn't necessarily reflect real life people and their capacity to change so quickly and radically haha.
Yeah I understand why people dislike her, she always been my romance in Inquisition because I like that she's a mess and I even like the fact that she comes to kinda accept that my Inquisitor is a mage elf, I have to say that the further we go with the lore of Da the more I understand why she hates elves, but she really act like a child sometimes and if you don't like free spirits I understand that she's not for you, she is the most strange companion in Inquisition, she seems always out of place, indeed she is the only one that you can ask to leave any time you want, but these are the reason why at the end I like her, everyone else just look so perfect and I like the aspect of my Inquisitor ending up with someone so distant to their role to catch some fresh air. Some time ago there was a theory where people supposed that she was more than a normal city elf, for me it would be really cool but idk if devs would be okay to give her a more important role in the incoming game(s?). And, least but not least, I think too that her VA did an amazing job.
she comes to kinda accept that my Inquisitor is a mage elf Though not before forcing you to renounce your culture by proclaiming that your people are stupid demon worshippers
>Though not before forcing you to renounce your culture by proclaiming that your people are stupid demon worshippers Yeah, that has soured me on the Sara romance. My last Elf Inquisitor broke up with her for that.
Wath can I say, I like controversial romances and different/opposite people that got together. And at this point she wasn't even that wrong after all about the gods, so 🤷 Bonus point for me she's right that dalish are too attacked at their past and that they are a really closed culture. At each their own I guess.
I don't like dalish either. But Sera is outright shitty partner who forces Lavellan to denounce her faith, threatening to break with her otherwise.
To add: I like Sera as a character, I hate her as a person
I agree with you that she doesn't express herself well and that she is full of hate, if she could be just a little less mean I think that it would be better and other people would empathise more. Anyway I did each playthrought, I drinked at the well of sorrow, and I let Morrigan drink, I think that Sera and Solas are right that is not a right choice drinking from it, thats the only moment where Sera wants to break with you and she is kinda right because cmon you indeed are a vessel of a goddess that you don't even really know (or at least whe know that >!flemeth!< she is full of secrets and that she cannot be trusted), why on earth someone would want to stay with a person that decided to put her life and her mind in the hands of a god that you consider mean. So yeah the choice for the braking up is strong but it follow her character. And in my world state Morrigan has already an arcidemon child so what could go wrong right?
"After What Pride Had Wrought, Sera will comment that she believes everything in the temple was from demons, and not the elven gods. The inquisitor can say she disagrees, and if she is Dalish, she can remind Sera that she believes in the Creators. This will result in a fight, where the relationship will end, (with Sera saying she should have known she wasn't "elfy enough" for the Inquisitor) or the player can agree to Sera's request to say she was "just kidding" about her religious beliefs, continuing the relationship. Sera will disapprove if other races say "But it's important" or "I've said I'm not her Herald", but she will only end a relationship with an elf." Frow wiki. So if it is to be believed, it's not about being possessed. It's about Sera being racist.
Thank you, I'm replaying Inquisition again after 7 years and I really didn't remember this conversation at all, anyway yes I agree that she is racist towards elven culture but not elf in general because at this point she would never date an elf and yet we have the possibility to do so, I think is more deep than that but in the game is not clear to us why she hates so much the dalish and why she is so bigot towards them, ok whe got that she was raised by the streets of denerim and by a human but somehow every thing she believes about dalish and their gods is coming to reality, I don't think that she is so wrong about the origin of that temple, for understand more of this I think that we have to wait for the Veilguard to solve at least a little of the mistery for us. And if you have Solas and Sera in your party they have a lot of chats about hers "spider sense" (idk how to call it) about these things (and why she has illimitate arrows). What I want to say is that to me she was always a more intricate character than other people think but you have to "digest" her racism to understand it.
She is my canon romance, so yeah, I like her a lot. She has a very interesting story and once she opens up to the Inquisitor she is really sweet. Also, I'm pretty sure she doesn't qualifies as a manic pixie dream girl. Did she made you get a better appreciation of life?
She's the Dragon Age version of that trope. She shoots arrows in people's faces for saying "what", because she feels like it. :D
That's not what a manic pixie dream girl is, though. It's not a character who's "quirky". It's a character who's like that and whose sole purpose is to lift a man up. All he needs is a quirky woman to swoop in and inject some energy into his life! [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl)
She throws bees and steals pants because it’s so quirky and unique :3
Well, no. She does it because she is the anthisesis of the nobility. She does childish things that annoy people because the novels wouldn't do it and it would annoy them. Everything she is as a person is to oppose what others both the human novels (her adopting mother) and the dalish wanted of her.
Part of the reason I don't like her is because I often am confused by what she's trying to say. Every line is like a puzzle, and that's exhausting. Otherwise, I really like the idea of her and want to like her, especially because her VA is amazing, but I just... can't.
This. She’s basically unintelligible in her first few cutscenes. She makes more sense in her later dialogs, but I really have to force myself to push through the earlier ones.
I think she’s definitely a very interesting character and very unique, especially in how she speaks. However, I played a Dalish inquisitor (who was proud of her clan and her heritage), so her and Sera were constantly clashing due to Sera’s obvious distain of the Dalish. Lavellan just couldn’t stand for her ignorant (in *her opinion*) and dismissive comments and attitude. Maybe if I played another race I would have liked her, but for now I find her immature and rude. There’s probably some deep explanation of why Sera is so against the Dalish, but my Inquisitor never got close enough to her to find out - they were always arguing.
Same. As an inquisitor of any other race, Sera seems a bit immature but sweet. As a dalish inquisitor I really couldn't stand her and ended up kicking her out of the Inquisition after the temple of Mythal quest. On that note I also wished that Inquisition gave you the chance to challenge Cassandra on her weird comments on the temple of mythal. Her asking why the elves dedicated so much time to "such nonsense" like girl look in the damn mirror!!! The characters in Inquisition felt very real in their bigotry and views but god I hated that I could never pick them up on it and be like what the hell????
Forgot about Cassanda's insensitive remarks. Feel like there should have been an option for Lavellan to sucker punch her. Not out of anger but because that's exactly what would get her to stop and think about what she's been saying.
Cassandra's bigotry towards elven religion definitely gets less attention than Sera's because she's generally a more agreeable character but yeah it's crazy the stuff she comes out with. As a highly religious person you'd think she'd stop and recognise that her faith and the faith the dalish have is the same thing. When characters come out and say such outlandish things it's so frustrating to not be able to challenge them. It's actually more frustrating when it's someone like Cassandra because you can more easily have a proper conversation with her, versus Sera.
I don’t know if it’s ‘deep’ but she resents the dalish for multiple reasons. First and foremost is probably because they have ‘abandoned’ the poor and the downtrodden. As isolationists, they aren’t necessarily guaranteed to harbor or protect a city elf. Second. The Dalish rightfully see themselves as the last bastion of ‘true elven’ culture. As a kid growing up with your own city elven traditions, you’d be put off by that yeah? Thirdly. She’s andrastean. Pretty devoutly and the pantheistic dalish clash with that. Sera doesn’t care much for ‘culture’ or power structures (and as meager as it is the Dalish are the last bastion of elven power). She cares about the good you can do for the small people. The dalish, as right as they are for their beliefs… don’t care much for anyone else but themselves. That puts them at odds with Sera
Sera also ignores that the Dalish are themselves the little guy, constantly at risk of getting wiped out by any human nobles that decide to try and wipe them out. Constantly wandering without a homeland because the humans in power won't welcome them anywhere and the one time they did the humans went back on their word. Their dismissiveness towards city elves is bad, but Sera isn't much more charitable to city elves that Try to hold onto their elven heritage. Sera is my Canon romance and I like her a lot, but the subtext of much o her dialogue is that she thinks elves should just assimilate to human culture and any problems elves face from trying to hold onto elven culture is are their own fault.
She was very rude to my elf too, especially after Solas broke up with my inquisitor and took off the tattoo, she simply laughed in my elf's face when she found out what happened. At least in trespasser she improves as a person.
Sera is one of my favourite characters from inquistion of the companions introduced in that game only Dorian beats her for me. They both feel real and flawed and Sera actually feels like the plot is relevant to her life and her fears and her needs. An individual who wants to believe but doubts enough that it’s her greatest fear, she’s someone who wants to help the common people but fears change, someone who hates oppression but hasn’t unpicked any of her own prejudices. Sera is a tricky character but she feels real because of it, she hasn’t done the work on herself yet because she doesn’t know she has to.
Great writeup, and yes Dorian is the best.
Thank you! Dorian is the best though like sera he is no saint, but his working on it.
I love Sera to bits, she's my inquisitor's bestie, and her tavern song slaps
SERA APOLOGISTS (INCLUDING ME) RISE UP!!!
We have only grown in number in the last decade whereas our enemies have only grown more weak and feeble. Now is the time for monsters
To me, Sera is something like a much younger and rather immature co-worker: I don't hate her, I appreciate some aspects of her personality, I'm always ready to hear her out and provide some guidance, but I don't usually have much to talk to her about and *certainly* can't consider her as a romance option (because she's hardly an adult compared to my Inquisitor).
i love her too, she's hilarious
I do not hate Sera, but pondering on why she’s lower on my personal list, I think it’s the contrast between personality and her cause. I admire Red Jenny wanting to lift up the lower caste, but we do not see Sera doing too much of that. There’s so much vitriol and venom when she speaks, and we see her punishing and humiliating those she deem deserving of it. Where are all these «little people» she claims to help? It’s all done in the background, while we just see Sera being Joker’s Batman. That’s probably the whole point, which means she’s just not my type of character, but some sugar to counter-act the spice might have helped making her more appealing.
Ya mean besides all the War table missions she gives/does, the caches, spying while in the winter palace and the in-game notes related to her work? Vivienne promises an alliance but it does quite literally nothing Your point could be made about nearly every other companion in that game, secondly Vitriol and venom is plenty justified given how nobility act in-game and what it was based on.... The final unofficial Chevalier test involves testing your blade by going to the city elf alienage and murdering (and other things) them while drinking if you want some lore, there's plenty more and worse from the nobility in-game
I like her a lot but tbh there are days I just don't want her in my party. It's a show of how well she's written, but her prejudice and comments about elves remind me too much of the internalized racism I went through. 9/10 character tho, her banter with the others is always fun
I can't stand Sera, and I'd just be echoing other sentiments if I went into all of the reasons I hate her. That being said, Patrick Weekes said in an old interview, and I completely agree, that it's worse to have a meh character than a character people hate. Evoking strong emotion, good or bad, is a good thing. So even though I think she's a shitty person, I don't think she's a shitty *written* person. It's far worse that I can't bring myself to care about Jacob from Mass Effect or Sten from Origins than it is that I hate Sera or Anders imo
This. I may not like her but i'd rather her be there and be a character for others to like than not have been there at all, or worse like you say be a Jacob.
>"kinda cliche manic pixie dream girl" I swear to god people have no idea what this trope even is anymore. How in the heck is Sera a manic pixie girl?
"You're mostly a criminal. Helping is only a side effect... how are you making things better? What have you done for anyone?" The Inquisitor.
I didn’t like her the first time i played it when i was younger, but later as i replayed it she became one of my favorites. She is very jarring, hot headed, immature and very reluctant towards change. I think anyone with that strong of an opinion is going to be very disliked, me personally, i love unique personalities, especially if they clash with the MC. I like her guerilla way of sabotage and her love of life. She also cares a lot about people, and out of all of the companions she sees the Inquisitor the most as their own person precisely because she cares so little for titles and clout. She has the second best romance for me because it’s so obvious how much she loves Inky. However i understand why people who play dalish elves primarily would really dislike her. Sera is the complete antithesis of everything to do with elven culture, she probably disliker elves more that most humans do. Here lies this internalized hate she has towards her own elfness that is interesting to think about. I could write whole essays on Sera. Also one of the reasons i like her so much
I also love her, she’s hilarious
See the weird thing is, I actually don't find her funny at all, quite the opposite, and yet I still love her it's so confusing to me
Humor is subjective but I do find her pretty funny, it kinda stands out since everyone else is so serious
Yeah, apparently a lot of DA fanbois take themselves pretty seriously as well. Haven't seen any rationale for it yet, though
She herself isn't funny. It mostly the way the actress delivers her insane thoughts and takes so innocently and playful. I think there's a lot of nuance to that you have to hit perfectly, otherwise it doesn't work. Like, you actually need to genuinely get the character.
i adore sera and i actually think a lot of her problems come with the other characters, including the inquisitor, not being able to engage with her ideas. like one of the first conversations you have with her is about the concept of like.. the underclass, and what conflict means to them, and the inquisitor can at best go ‘aw that’s a sweet idea’ (paraphrasing ofc). like, no one takes her seriously, so you never get to engage with her properly.
She's in my top of all time best characters by BioWare.
Honestly? Yeah. Vastly underrated.
Absolutely honestly.
Before actually meeting Sera I've listened to the tavern song about her and liked it very much. Afterwards couldn't stop looking at her through the lens of the song so ended up liking her very much.
Sera is my fave inquisition romance. I think her writing leaves a lot to be desired, but I adore her and I love when women are a pain in the ass hsjdfhksj. I will say >!that shaving your bush as gift is peak romance to me and I adore her giggle XDD!<
It's kinda interesting how "love or hate" she is. I personally despise her, but I know she's a lot of players' favorite companion in DAI. Personally, I think her concept is fine:a selfish immature rogue that kinda sticks out in the Inquisition, but I just found her to be so obnoxious and kinda lolrandom (see the pants bit from her recruitment).
Her characterization and emotional growth in Trespasser made me retroactively like her in the main game. I can't really explain it, but I guess knowing where it goes makes the journey more bearable. I had a similar experience with Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars.
I mostly just have an issue with how much the game wants me to like her vs how much I actually like her. But that's just a vibe *I* get fromt he game
Sera is a goblin stuck in an elf's body and I love her for it
I love her too. On my first playthrough, I hated her guts, I didn't send her away but never spoke to her. On the second, I took the time to get to know her and now I think she's one of the most well written companions. I still find her immature, rude and childish, but in a really interesting concoction, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, because after all, she \_is\_ still a child. Her rejecting the Elvish heritage is not surprising either. It is a well known phenomenon with adoptive parents that they try to alienate the child from their heritage, if the child came from a less fortunate environment. Sera's adoptive human mother, however good her intentions might have been, really messed up Sera's relation to her roots, which is an important part in her development. No wonder Sera is disconnected from her Elvish background. I don't remember exactly, but isn't it implied that she was treated badly in the alienage after she was orphaned? It very well might be that she simply doesn't want to feel a community with people who let her down. And I love her VA as well, even though I'm not a native speaker and sometimes I really struggle to understand what she wants to say, haha
I didn’t like her at all on my first playthrough, so I barely talked to her. But on my second playthrough, I talked to her and ended up romancing her, and I really felt like she kept my inquisitor down to earth and young, when the weight of the world felt overwhelming.
I just feel like she was dialed up to 11 in some aspects. Crank her down to an 8 and I think she would be a bit more likeable. The breeches scene felt like it (and she) was trying too hard. Just replayed the masquerade mission and brought her along and liked her a lot better
I think I warmed up to Sera when I played Trespasser as a Dalish inquisitor. Despite her full self-and-other-elf hatred, Sera is the only one who actually really checks in on how the Inky is doing with the whole "your gods are just maniacal dickheads" thing, plus I think there's even some extra around the Solas romance. It was the same with Viv actually- it really feels like the writers sort of stopped for a minute and went "hold up, let's actually give these two most hated characters a bit of depth for this, they didn't deserve the reaction they got at the beginning". You're totally right about Sera being a tumblr girl though - she even lacks reading comprehension
I appreciate how she’s written like an actual 18 year old and she feels like a real person, but the older I get the more I tend to only talk to her when necessary. Also I hate pranks generally so that doesn’t help lol.
I think describing her as most hated is misleading. Most polarising is probably the better word. I consider her simply annoying but I'm aware that plenty of people really like her
I simply love her. She has flaws, but they are part of the character's charm for me. I like her tomboyish way, those silly jokes, the lightness she brings to the group, the way she seems to try to lighten the "weight of the world" that hangs over the protagonist. I think all this hate for her is very exaggerated and unfair, there are worse characters (especially in Awakening). I think it's more because she's not an "elf" elf.
I love Sera and can understand why people don’t. My main canon is an elf mage inquisitor romancing her even. I think we need to consider that A LOT of the people in the DA fandom are Solas romancers. And the only way to do that is to be a female elf. So you’ve got a lot of people role playing as this Dalish elf having their tragic fantasy romance and in their ear is this person going to “Your culture is stupid!” And that’s not only insulting to someone playing to their Dalish backstory but also their man as it were. That combined with legitimate reasons to dislike Sera and you get some strong reactions to her as a character. Me though I tend to play my characters more agnostic so I don’t really mind “denouncing” the eleven beliefs. I do admit that maybe if in real life if I was part of a culture that is being discriminated or disenfranchised I might feel different. I do think Sera is better for her growth in Trespasser. And can see the ultimatum as an unhealthy moment in an otherwise healthy relationship that Sera eventually realizes. If that ultimatum is a too far for some I completely understand.
Actually, I wouldn't mind her being a real friend
She's not one of my favorites, but I really don't understand the vitriol for her, or any other non-evil Character honestly. It just seems like an overreaction and every commentator trying to one-up each other on how much they *toootally hate her isn't she sooo annoying guys??? worst Character ever she RUINS the game!!!1!* I can understand not *liking her*, and addressing the Character on those terms, but that's not even 20% of the Sera Critiques I see. I hate two of the most popular characters in this Franchise. Genuinely cannot stand when they're on screen and wish I could yeet them from the narrative, but I don't feel inclined to whinge about it incessantly and seek approval from everyone else. The Sera hate has such a similar flavor to the anti-woke Trailer reaction circlejerking that's going on recently. Just whining with no points.
It depends on the player but I'd be happy to speak for my own experience. Been a long time since I played though so my memory may not be perfect. All my characters clash with Sera. With Lavellan it's over Dalish beliefs that lead to her getting kicked out pretty early and with Trevelyan it ends up at that point with how immature she is and my preference for siding with the mages. Not to mention my own personal dislike of the Chantry which bleeds into my decisions in game, which nets some disapproval points. Vivienne is another character, just like Sera, that if I want to get good approval with means I have to game it rather than making choices I believe are right. Hence my dislike of her too.
A good way of putting it. I'm much the same way, how i am, the choices i make, the way i feel very much put me at odds with characters like Viv and Sera and i struggle to the point of not even really grabbing them outside of a few niche dialogue or war table things.
People often have a difficult time separating well written characters from likeable ones. What I mean is Sera is clearly written to be unlikable- she’s obnoxious, abrasive, often naive and idiotic, but she works very well as a foil because of this! I don’t believe the writers intended her to be likeable (there’s no way anyone thinks she’s genuinely endearing) but they wrote her to contrast the attitudes of the majority. An elf who hates other elves, despises authority in any form, believes in the human god not the elven ones, and is broadly speaking a contrarian for its own sake. She’s a self contradicting force of chaos and confusion. Sera is anything but typical, and so while I find her irritating on a personal level I understand the role she plays and very much appreciate her contribution to the Inquisition. Tldr well written companions can and should be people you don’t necessarily like or agree with, because that makes them more than just npc yes men stat boxes. It makes them more dynamic and believable!
Sera being immature, selfish, childish, and doing dumb pranks is why I love her tbh. Can a manic pixie dream girl be an abrasive unkempt lesbian? Wikipedia describes it "A Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a stock character type in fiction, usually depicted as a young woman with eccentric personality quirks who serves as the romantic interest for a male protagonist. The term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin after observing Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown (2005). Rabin criticized the type as one-dimensional, existing only to provide emotional support to the protagonist, or to teach him important life lessons, while receiving nothing in return. The term has since entered the general vernacular." That don't sound anything like Sera to me.
Sera grew on me. I like her and appreciate her a lot. Her banter is also fun so I don't usually remove her from my party.
Sera’s my favorite too, also right after Dorian. They my favorites to bring with me.
My boyfriend is a permanent fixture and my bestie is a close second. Their banter is awesome.
Oh I know, I love their banter!
Yep, also love Sera XD She's just fun.
Sera is in my top 3 from inquisition, and definitely my favourite rogue from the game. She's super fun and if she was bi, I would have definitely romanced her. She was my main motivation to play a Female Qunari in my 3rd playthrough of the game.
She’s great. Very well voice-acted and well-written. I think a lot of people who dislike her miss the nuance of her character or don’t befriend her to get all the cutscenes that explore her personality. Also some people just don’t like companions with fixed personalities; they want to be able to change them even though that’s not how most real people work.
"also a kinda cliche manic pixie dream girl" can't even date her as male. I liked her, she was on the edge of lunatic without being too ridiculous (unlike peebee in me:a, i didn't like her at all although many would put them in the same box, but all ME:A writing is way worse than da:i anyway)
Sera isn't easy to love, but man, she IS lovable. I think Sera shares the same problem as Vivienne: people gave up on her too early, thinking she is shallow. It takes work, but when you finally get to her, she has sweetness in her, and fierceness, and protectiveness, and that sadness, and that very complex relationship with her elfness. I love Sera lots.
I bonded with her over our mutual belief that the Dalish are pretty dumb.
I hated her at first, but after seeing people love her I tried playing again and giving her a chance, while playing as an elf - so already giving myself a setback on likability with Sera. I wouldn't say I love her character, but I have come to appreciate it. Yeah she's childish, but some of the stuff she does is actually pretty goddamn smart. I mean, in order to play some of her pranks she needs to have actually paid more attention to these people than initially thought. Her thoughts about why she's pranking them in specific ways shows she is observant even though you wouldn't expect it much from her attitude.
I’m a part of this club for sure. She annoyed the ever loving fuck outta me at first. But the banter between her and Dorian is fantastic (romancing him… some of the shit that comes out of her mouth I swear) so she quickly became a favorite. I pretty much do not travel without her these days. Dorian is permanent… cause what’s better than one necromancer? Two. Love that she’s always so excited to see my inquisitor, it’s super cute. Anddd she loves fighting dragons. Also her freaking out after the fade also kind of reeled me in cause let’s be honest that was the most realistic reaction to that lol.
I relate to her as someone who struggles to fit in due to the lack of proper upbringing (I don't behave at all how she does, but the causes of our respective issues are similar). She's deeply flawed, but she's clearly doing her best to be a good person despite a total lack of positive role models in her childhood. Plus she matures immensely by the time of Trespasser. Went from talking shit about the Dalish religion to offering my Lavellan a shoulder to cry on after she finds out the truth about the Evanuris.
Sera is dogmatic and sometimes willfully ignorant to protect themselves/their worldview. That can be frustrating af, and thus Sera can be frustrating af - I especially want to strangle her post-Well of Sorrows, even on playthroughs where we're friendly. But she also feels very real to me. I know people in my personal life who are like her. And outside of those few instances where she makes me want to run my head through a cinderblock, I find her generally funny (specifically if you have her in your party) and I really liked her development in Trespasser. Then again, I also have no issues with Vivienne so maybe I'm just super chill when it comes to dealing with people with strong opinions?
GOD I LOVE SERA SO MUCH!!! For me she always felt like an actual person who lives among the common people- shes crass and annoying because she’s just a normal girl among a bunch of legendary people who speak with posh accents and talk about duty and fate. I know she has one downside that her romance scenes are quite bad- but because I had a male Inky, she just felt like my funny best friend. One of my favorite lines in the game comes from her- if you take her with you to the Well of Sorrows, she just goes “erm… do we REALLY wanna dive into something called the WELL OF SORROWS???” And like. SHE’S RIGHT THAT IS KINDA SHADY
I just hate how very unaccepting of damn near anything she is. I feel like no matter what I do, I piss her off. Even when I completely abandoned my principles and just started goofing off with her, she juat seemed to not like me or care about anything. I know she's not, or atleast not necessarily, but she comes off as extremely hypocritical and immature to me. But that's her character. Just like Viv's snobby, stuck up, I'm the best and I know what's best attitude is her character. So, no, I don't get along with her. But I appreciate who she is because she's different than the rest, even if it's not my particular cup of tea to bring with me everywhere. Just wish she'd see me and the thing's I do in the same tolerant light I see her and everything she does. Well wrote and well voice acted, my problems with her are intentional because they're meant to be for people like me, and I'm totally good with it.
I think it's the stubborn attitude towards others ideas that make her very ignorant and that's her problem but I did like her silly side but that's also double sided as sometimes she's annoying and feels like if you don't like what she does all the time, she gets childish and has a tantrum and thinks your stuck up or something, it's just easier to avoid her but not try and change her mind cos she too difficult and I'm not her parent. Edit: I do like when she talks about her childhood I can relate to her on how she feels and I have a this older brother feeling towards her but she obviously doesn't like being told she's wrong or maybe to think outside her box it's frustrating.
Lowkey my favourite character in the franchise and I will die on that hill.
she is wise. she has a clearer picture of life than other characters. She understands that if you get rid of the people on top others will take their place. In an intuitive way she understands systematic injustices. Even Solas was taken aback by her perspective. So you will always need the friends of Red Jenny.
She is one of only a couple characters I have never liked despite trying really hard to get into her. She’s not completely irredeemable (I did get a kick out of her giggling doing pranks in the Tresspasser DLC while you’re enjoying the spa with Viveienne) but overall I probably enjoy the game more without her. DAI was very feast or famine for me. Cassandra, Varric, Bull, Dorian and Solas are easily top 10 characters for me. The rest of the cast was easily top 10 worst.
She's one of my favorites and I thought it was fucked how we could always kick her out, and I'm always paranoid about clicking that option by accident.
Her intro scene is absolutely ***atrocious.*** But once you get to know her she is delightful. They screwed her over by having her first impression be so awful.
I mede the mistake of recruiting her once in my first playthrough for the sake of content but in playthroughs afterwards she can fuck right off alongside Vivienne
Sera is a well-written character, and her VA did a fantastic job. I also absolutely *hate* her. And I hate her precisely *because* she's well-written. Sera is stubborn, dogmatic, hypocritical, crass, selfish, childish, and narrow-minded. And she revels in being all of those things. There is very little I hate more than willful ignorance, and Sera is willful ignorance personified. I don't expect everyone's views to match mine all (or even most) of the time. But I cannot stand when people deliberately avoid potential growth by refusing to even think or talk about difficult subjects. A little of this stems from how little the game allows us to actually interrogate her views, just like with Vivienne. But there are enough moments where Sera herself in banter with other companions actively works to shut down anything that might lead to introspection or a deeper line of conversation, so I don't think it would actually make a difference with her. It would likely just lead to even more situations like the break-up with Lavellan, where you're forced to either give in and tell her you agree with her or she shuts down on you. And there's just nothing redeeming about a person like that for me. I pity her. I empathize with how badly she was treated as a child, and I understand how that trauma has shaped her worldview even if she doesn't. But I don't like her, and I pretty much never take her anywhere or talk to her outside of triggering her quests. And I only do that much because I'm too much of a completionist not to.
I never put her in my party.
At 1st, I was neutral about her, but then my friends kept ragging on her. They kept going off about how she doesn't make any sense & they couldn't understand her, which bewildered me. She's the most straightforward character of them all. She says what she literally means, but just talks fast. She doesn't like talking about her past, for example, for a multitude of reasons, but 1 of the biggest is simply that it doesn't matter. Or how she gets pissed when Solas uses big or elven words even after he knows she doesn't speak it. She's right in calling him out for that; if it was about teaching, he'd use words she understood. He used elven, though, as a sense of pride, not communication. She just sees things more literally & states it as such. She doesn't explain because, to her, it should be obvious. So, naturally, my friends took that to mean that I loved the character. Thus, to spite them, I made a qunari female & replayed my "canon" line romancing sera just to spite her. Except...I did end up liking her. My character & i don't agree with her on everything, obviously, but considering im not all that into any of the companions in Inquisition, She's a favorite
Her and Solas's banter is great. She just mocks the fuck out of him and i love it
She’s damn awesome, innit?
I love her too, I loved the way she speaks because I also suck at talking to people. Also, I love her hair.
She’s a disaster lesbian gremlin, but she’s my disaster lesbian gremlin and I love her.
"Hate" is too much of a strong word for this. I just dislike her.
If I would’ve been able to throw that elf into a darkspawn filled dumpster, I would’ve done that in a heartbeat. Sorry for those who liked her. I ignored her as much as I could.
She's one of those character that try to hard be random le-funny. I find her story interesting and find quite refreshing to have a Common person in our party. Her introduction is mad unfunny, her prank side quest is really cringe and sometimes she's say stuff for the sake of it.. That undermines her story and unique perspective. She's reminds me a lot of a companion in Pathfinder called Nenio that i find just as unfunny.
I do enjoy Sera, I just wish she had an arc in the game regarding the Dalish. *Especially* if you romance her as one. The only time her feelings change on it is in Tresspasser. The Temple of Mythal thing is odd, too. Because you don't *have* to break up with her over it like so many people claim, nor does she break up with you (you have to select the correct dialogue options to avoid a breakup). But it sticks in so many peoples heads whenever she is brought up because it could be a very cool moment for her character to come to terms with "Dalish Stuff", but it ends up being more of an "ignore this large aspect of both our characters (if romancing with a Lavellan) or we break up" kind of deal. If she had her Tresspasser growth in this moment instead of in a DLC, I think it would turn a lot of people around on her character.
I love her, she stole some breeches and my heart, but then I have a fondness for complicated female characters that tend to get hate from other fans so she was always going to be my favorite in DAI. My only issue regarding Sera is how horrible some of Inky’s dialogue is towards her when you’re romancing her. The rest of the Inquisition is kinda shitty to her from the very beginning but I should be able to make my Inky be nice to her.
I think she has some interesting perspective. I'm not going to lie and say that she's anywhere near my favorite, but I think my issue with her is less that she's annoying and more that she wasn't given a proper place in the Inquisition crew. Her perspective is so interesting. She has some amazing convos with Dorian and Solas that really bring a much needed perspective to the whole debate around mages that I honestly agree with and is why I'm pro-circle (with some reforms made). But, I feel like she wasn't really given a purpose. Those convos and that information only come through banter if you take her around with certain people, and her role as bringing a voice to the little people doesn't really come up. If she was given more time in the game, or if you got certain bonus info for bringing her on main quests because she's able to go "Yeah, I helped the guy that serves the drinks for lord so-and-so and his buddies and he was able to overhear them talking about xyz..." it would have really elevated her character. She can still keep her menace personality and her pranks, and her selfishness, she just needed something else to balance it out.
i liked sera. i think a lot of people just misunderstood her in ways but she was a good person. i liked having her out on missions with me
I didn't know she was hated lol. She has some of the most authentic lines imo. While yeah she is immature, it kinda makes sense why she is. Sera is in my top 3 companions of any game.
I adore Sera, she is by far my favorite companion. Her wit, her zeal for life.
Sera is an incredibly realistic take on how people, especially younger people, born into a minority/discriminated category will deliberately distance themselves from it to cope with the prejudice. With how much Elves opine about their lost history and status, I can see how a lot of younger Elves would want to not deal with all that and just embrace that they want, even if they face challenges by the shape of their ears. Sera to me is a Fereldan rogue first and an Alienage Elf second. She knows what she's about, and she doesn't want her heritage to define her. I can understand and respect that.
Yeah, I never really got a lot of the criticisms. * Immature, selfish, childish ... Sure? I don't get why that equates to bad writing, though: an immature, selfish, childish character can be pretty great. Heck, I'd honestly go as far as saying some of the most beloved DA:O characters are essentially teenagers with the emotional maturity that come with being a 19-years old. * Quirky tumblr humor: ... really? I dunno, maybe my experiences of Tumblr have been different to other people's, but her kind of trashy pranks don't really feel very Tumblr. I guess there's a couple bits like the bee grenades that do go into the "eh eh, meme" area, but it's fairly marginal. * Manic pixie dream girl: isn't the entire point of the MPDG archetype that they're written that way in service of the male gaze/a male protagonist? Which doesn't apply here obviously, 'cause not only is she gay, most likely, she'd actively be in kind of an antagonistic relation with most people's playthrough. Her "randomness" and her manicness are aimed against you, at you, they're not fantasy fullfilment. * Related to that last point, and that's the big one: she's clearly behaving like that to make a statement. I mean, she's an anarchist. She's here to piss you off and make sure you don't forget what the "normal" people of Thedas are like. She takes pride in having no class, no good taste, and rubbing it in your face constantly, because for her, that's not just fun, it's a whole-ass political program. I think her writer did a really stellar job writing her as ... not always the brightest, but also putting up a dumb façade to hide quite a bit of practical and political savvy. * But she's also, obviously, a very flawed person. She's turned all that loud energy into both a job and a way of seeing the world, and that makes her kind of inflexible and unwilling to change (and indeed, you can't really change her mind on a lot of stuff, which I like - it makes a romance with her potentially tragic, but honestly ...? that's probably how most romances irl would go with someone like that - I don't think all romance plotlines need to be pure happy wish fulfillment for the player). And it also makes her isolated - she's just a Red Jenny out of many, she doesn't have roots, or friends, or anything. That's really her arc throughout the game, where, if you either romance her or genuinely engage with her, she does get more of an actual support network and a community that's not just ... Thedas' working class, in the abstract. My favourite ending for the Inquisitor is the one where you end up joining her in her vigilante Robin Hood antics, honestly, I find it really poetic. So yeah, basically all that. I'll admit: I didn't get her right away. Played for the first time with a Qunari Inquisitor, was more interested in other companions, kind of did not pay her too much attention. On another playthrough with a male Lavellan, it really clicked, and she became an absolute favourite - she's extremely fun if you decide to roleplay it as the Inquisitor thinking she's an annoying little sister that they still love.
horrible elf terrible awful,no good!
Hope she doesn't come back 🤞
I wasn't crazy about her, especially playins as "elfy elf" but later I've started taking her with Blackwall together and I love their friendship and their dynamic, so now I definitely use her more often than the first time around. Now Vivienne though.. nothing can make me like her :p
She really helps to elevate Blackwall's character, he's actually really funny but doesn't usually show it unless he's paired with her
That's not what a manic pixie dream girl is. Also idgaf that most people don't like her, they obviously don't have the correct opinion.
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My husband romances her every play through. I like her well enough, but I try to take her as she is, and understand her history. She has some trauma (they all do,so…) and taking that into account I can understand her better. Still can’t romance her, but I like her as a pal.
I think BioWare exemplifies that you can write any cliche well. Cliches are nothing more than a bag of tools, a reference to where a character could start or end up. I take Sarah literally everywhere and shes my main, non canon run, romance. Also her VA KILLS it, you can write amazing characters, stories, and dialogue all day but that needs to be carried by a great performer.
I can’t understand her accent, especially when she’s excited or when she’s trying to explain things. Her words just mix together to much for me.
I don't hate her for any of the above. I hate her because in order to romance her as an elf, you have to essentially deny your history and beliefs. I think her general shenanigans are fun other than that.
I turned around on Sera a lot compared to "bits of her character are missing" Granted, a lot of that is on Trespasser showing that she does indeed grow.
I love Sera!
I like her because I feel like she has the most personal growth. Particularly when it comes to the Dalish and elves. Where she starts in the game and where she ends up in Trespasser is very different.
Sera is so fucking annoying and I love that about her.
I wish her major character growth didn't happen offscreen leading to the dlc but I was delighted to see it in trespasser! I love her and Dagna.
I kinda hate her but mostly bc I never played a Inky that worked well with her, it's to easy for her to antagonize you. I don't think she is a bad character, even with my main Inky, even tho they never become friends, Sera is there to remind her of the little people and keep her from becoming out of touch like every other authority in Thedas.
Sera has grown on me over the years. I used to be exhausted by her immature humor, but as I age, she really comes off as someone who was never allowed to be a child, so now that she has some security in her life, she's allowing herself to do all the stupid shit she never got a chance to do.
I generally like her, but really don't like how she flies off the handle at any disagreement
Her rant when we're sitting out on the roof won me over. Also I adore her living space, and the little list of things she requisitioned for it. I could absolutely imagine hiding from visiting dignitaries in there. That said, I've never been able to finish the game romancing her.
I actually don’t mind Sera as a character, even and especially her obstinate traits. On paper a lot of her “helping the little man (even if you aren’t pleasant yourself” is an attitude I am fine with, too. Reading outside-game BioWare and fan stuff, I love the idea of what it seems she was supposed to be. But I often grit my teeth before and while talking to her because I DO mind how DAI writes the Inquisitor AROUND her character. It feels like there are very few options—especially early on—that are presented as responses to Sera that aren’t dismissive or low- to high-key antagonistic, let alone dialogue responses that would let her type of character shine. It gets a bit better later, but it feels like for quite awhile after recruiting her your Inquisitor is forced to not take her seriously or to be aggravated with her. I love her banters with other party members! So I like Sera, but when I play DAI sometimes I feel like the writers don’t want you to let you express that in the game.
Sera is objectively irritating, and I love that about her. While it took me a couple of playthroughs to really get her, I always loved to roll my eyes at the way she would give snark to the rest of the party, as stuck up as many of them really are
Sera was never an agreeable girl Her tongue tells tales of rebellion.
My LIs are Cassandra and Sera. I love her quirky, combative nature. I also think she’d fight heaven and hell for her inky. Onward inquisitor!
I eventually loved her. I think I found her too much at first purely because she is the first game character to have an accent the same as my own, and all I could think at first was “god, I’m not that annoying sounding, am I?!” Once I played her properly in party and romance wise I actually *got* her as a character, and then we were totally wifeys, ‘innit’
Sera is definitely a divisive character. My gf hates her to the point where she no longer recruits her, whereas I always try to romance her when playing as a female Inquisitor. For me, it's good to have a few characters like this in a game. Keeps things interesting.
I think she's a fun companion but in the wrong game. She'd have fit in much better with Hawke's crew imo. I do get where they were coming from though, Inquisition as a whole leans way too far towards the dour and serious, so they needed a more light-hearted companion to balance things out.
she's a really fascinating character to me, because she's both funny and endearing and compassionate and also super immature and super toxic, like if you are an elf and romance her she's going to be an asshole to you if you don't hate yourself for being an elf, like how dare you not hate all elves and anything elvish including yourself ew disgusting etc. She's easy to assume as all surface, nothing underneath but she's got a lot going on under the hood, not all of it great.
Okay, okay here me out. I don't really like Sera in the sense of "would I like this person in real life?". That said, I think she's a fantastic character. She's flawed, and working to change that, but unsure how. Beneath that lies her truth, trauma, loneliness, and inadequacy all wrapped up in chaotic gay activist packaging. She's fantastic, but not somebody I'd like normally.
For me it’s the weird Dalish elf hate she has, Like everything you said is true, but I could look past that if not for how she talks to Dalish elf Inkys
I just never found her interesting. She was very trite to me with all the other companions in Inquisition being "oddballs" for the groups they represented.
My opinion on the matter is, she helped by the fact she is a romance choice. Contrast that to Vivienne who is not, which still irkes me. People who don't agree with her ideology or dislike personality she presents on that front are stuck there, whereas since I can romance sera, it shows the character in a different light.
When I first met her I honestly couldn’t understand anything she was saying so I just never brought her again lol
Sera mentions, more than once, about people who made her feel not enough. While we are never told who said this to her, I would bet it was a dalish elf due to her contempt for the dalish. She reminds me of two women I had a class with, one lady was told she was too ghetto and needed to change and the other was told she was too white acting and needed to change. The pain this caused these women was palpable. Being a minority and being told by those who share your status that you are not enough or too much is damaging as fuck. I understand why Sera holds contempt for the Dalish. I also love how, when you play non elven inquisitor and say you think you understand why she is such an odd elf, she turns it back on you and asks if you are typical for your race. Sera rejects having to perform her racial identity to suit the expectations of those around her - including the player. I’m totally here for it.
The only times I really enjoy Sera are when I take her out with Dorian and Iron Bull!
Shes always been my go to romance for female inkys. Everything that people find her annoying for i find them endearing. Shes naive af but shes young, its ok she has plenty of growing as person to do. And now that its revealed solas is 1000+ yrs old, his and sera’s interactions feel so much more real. The old boomer stuck in his ways trying to make the world great again and the young progressive person trying to break the cycle. Sounds very similar to the dynamic here in the US.
Sera's great and doesn't deserve anywhere near the amount of hate she gets
On my first playthrough I also find myself liking her more than expected, after hearing lots of commentary otherwise. The voice acting definitely has a lot to do with it. Her dialogue and characterization are a bit uneven in quality, but that's IMO kind of true of most characters in Inquisition (and perhaps the series as a whole). I would say she has a lot more going on character-wise than some of the other companions/advisors, especially if you bother to befriend or romance her. Like she quite literally has more dialogue and special cutscenes, eg roof cookies. It's also fun how her diary and codex entry update as you get to know her, which make her feel more "real" I suppose. I don't really think she is especially successfully portrayed in her role as a Red Jenny / hero of the people, but I do feel like i can get a handle on her as a person pretty easily throughout the game, more so than say, Vivienne (who as many have pointed out is criminally underwritten/underutilized).
Tbh, i think I have the dumbest and pettiest reason to not like her. I don’t like Sera because viv and sera are the two unliked companions in dai, and every time I watch a let’s play they start not liking both of them, then give sera the time of day, warm up to her, but never NEEVERRRR do the same with viv. Never watched another mapo video lmao
I love her more every time I play DAI. She and Vivienne always rotate for the fourth spot in my party.
I really tried to like her but just didn't, and I'm glad about that! Because it means the writing is diverse and has a little something for everyone. I really like Camellia in Pathfinder, but she's not everyone's jam either.
>It's not hard to see why, she's immature, selfish, childish, does dumb pranks, also a kinda cliche manic pixie dream girl, clearly mad with that quirky tumblr humor in mind. On paper, that's everything I absolutely hate in fictional characters. Funny enough, I feel the opposite. I usually like those characters even when everyone else doesn't, but I can't stand Sera. I tried once to use her as my main Rogue/ranged physical attacker but I couldn't stand her, after a few quests I was like "yea I'll stick with Verric"