#da2 sebastian

[neithrain]

[charalysis]

Sebastian Vael

Opinion: Sebastian Vael isnt boring, you all are merely unwilling to recognize a victim of religious brainwashing and abuse when it’s someone like him.

Firstly, let’s establish a timeline. 

Canonically, in Act 3 of Dragon Age two, Sebastian claims he has not seen Starkhaven, his home, in fifteen years. He was forced into the Chantry shortly after his grandfather gave him his bow, which was at 13 years old, making Sebastian, at minimum, 13 when he was forced into the Chantry. This timeline honestly doesn’t sit right with me. Given the reason his family put him into the Chantry was they were “worried he would sire a bastard child”, this implies Sebastian, at 13 years old, just hitting puberty, was already having such an active sex life (which has alarming implications on it’s own), that his parents decided to take action and force him into Chastity.

I find it far more likely Sebastian was 16 at youngest when he was doing this, thus making him 31 or so by Act 3. While a hypersexual 16 year old is still concerning, it’s far more believable than a 13 year old.

Regardless, Sebastian was shoved into the Chantry between 13-16 years old in Kirkwall, under the watchful eyes of Grand Cleric Elthina.

To understand Sebastian’s behavior, we must understand Elthina’s interactions with him.

Elthina plays the roll of overbearing and manipulative mother to Sebastian, as he doesn’t seem to ever see his mother again after being thrown into the Chantry. Elthina, throughout DA2, is seen berating Sebastian for his behavior, for his mere personality. Sebastian acts impulsive, she yells as him, he makes friends outside the Chantry, she yells at him. He’s considering his faith and trying harder to be devout, it’s not good enough, and she yells at him. Elthina repeatedly comes at Sebastian like a chastising mom and gets frustrated when he questions her or disagrees. Elthina is even seen/ heard trying to make things Sebastian’s fault, as if his impulsive and inquisitive personality is glaring flaw. She does not tolerate him questioning her.

Sebastian always leaves his conversations with Elthina confused or frustrated, as she’s defensive and shuts him down immediately.

Given this, we may also examine Sebastian’s habit of relating things back to Andrastianism and his faith. Based on how hard Elthina drills things into his head with Hawke around, it’s entirely possible that before Hawke arrived in his life, Sebastian blindly followed whatever she said. It’s not exactly clear what Sebastian specifically dealt with before he met Hawke, but given Kirkwall’s Chantry is as corrupt as the rest of the city, there’s a possibility he wasn’t fed his beliefs and the Chant of Light by reading.

When Sebastian recites things about the Maker or the Chant, at times it feels as though he’s more so trying to convince himself more than anything, especially given he doesn’t try to push his beliefs onto others. The closest he gets to that is A) helping Fenris navigate his own struggles with faith, B) suggesting to Merrill it’s possible both faiths are correct and can can coexist. 

Another thing that leads me to believe he’s not as invested in his faith as he claims is one quote from him to Varric. “Varric, would the Maker but approve, you and I could be more than the best of friends”.

Opinion: Youre gonna look me in my eyes and tell me that’s a straight sentence from a heterosexual man??????????

It’s established that Sebastian was going to be bisexual, but that the devs decided he was only to be romancable by Female Hawke due to him being in the Chantry. 

Thus another thing Sebastian is forced to hide about himself.

Sebastian’s interactions with Elthina often leave him sad, distressed, and confused. It’s these moments that often make him question himself more than any other time. He expresses regret after acting out of anger fueled impulse and questions if it was the right thing to do, but after Elthina berates him, he’s more likely to question his own thoughts and personality as it relates to her and their shared faith. She has whittled away at his self worth that he actively talks about how his behavior, no matter how justified, isn’t appropriate.

And this all STILL doesn’t even talk about the issues he must have had as the youngest of three in a royal family. His parents had their heir and their spare, where did that leave him? He never mentions his parents much, only his grandpa, and even directly brings up the heir and spare thing. I’m willing to bet Sebastian was an oopsie baby; an unexpected third child in the family and due to him not fitting into the heir/spare dynamic, his parents focused on their older sons, ensuring they got attention and proper ruling education. This would leave Sebastian to be raised by servants and taught by his grandfather, I also find it possible that Sebastian may have had a decent age gap between himself and his siblings, thus further isolating him from his family. In fact, that could explain why he’s so accepting of others in the Kirkwall gang ragging on him. It’s interaction and attention.

This could also explain the copious amounts of sex and partying that lead to him getting tossed into the Chantry. He got attention from his bed mates and fellow partiers, and eventually it got his parents to pay attention to him. Though it inevitably backfired on him, as they tossed him away to forget about.

TL;DR: Sebastian Vael was likely neglected emotionally and has suffered from Chantry brainwashing and never realized. He’s not boring, most just find him irritating due to their own issues with religion and don’t look at what his backstory truly is.

[truetealtears]

Thinking about the da2 cast again and how it was so brave of them to make a group where the mage companions are technically 2 prime examples of the worst extremes of mages according to the rest of Thedas. Plus you as mage Hawke can be a blood mage and while you can’t actually become an abomination you can attemp to make deals with demons in certain quests.

All while one of the other companions is absolutely seething and throwing a fit right behind you because ‘wtf Hawke! That’s a blood mage and an abomination!!!’ While the rest of the group range from ‘well they’re on our side so meh’ to ‘He has a point tho’

Not to mention this is all set in Kirkwall, right under Knight Commander mother fucking Meredith’s nose.

And somehow, through sheer charisma ig, you can keep this group together for 10 years. Almost the entirety of the game, except in the finale where it becomes Anders vs Sebastian, but still for 10 years this group didn’t implode???? Legendary

I’m not saying Anders being possessed and Merrill’s blood magic are the only points of conflict in that group, it’s just really funny to me how they made these two characters who are the two widely renown ‘bad evil cursed’ types of mages and put them in a group with:

Ex- Tevinter slave who fucking despises mages

Guard Captain who was married to a Templar and is now technically legally obligated to report them

Dedicated Chantry Brother who was and will one day again be royalty (also technically obligated to report them??? But idk if that’s legally, religiously or both so correct me if I’m wrong about that)

And it took 10 years for something to explode??? (Lmao). It’s ever funnier when you then manage to convince these people to help you support a mage rebellion when the only mages they really know are an abomination a blood mage and potentially; Hawke, who can also be a blood mage. Long story short, Da2 has my favourite cast, they’re so silly when you think about it and I love them so much lmao

[ramdom-stupid-sketches-of-mine]

and I will let my Mabari eat that chip too. I don't hate you, Seb, this is not personal at all :D

[holos-pixies]

Sebastian Vael.

Personally, I think Sebastian is actually quite interesting as a character. Probably one of the reasons why he is unsympathetic to the other companions is because they notice that he suppresses his true self. In itself, I believe in personal development and that spiritual sources can be very helpful for this, but it is crucial that you find your own way there. Sebastian was forced into the chantry and, in my opinion, brainwashed. It is always interesting when his true self comes out, as it becomes clear how much he is often in conflict with himself and what the chantry preaches. I think he shows his true self especially in the conflict with Anders at the end of DA2, especially when Anders is left alive.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

"Stab Anders and keep Sebastian in your party!" they said.

"Sebastian will bring an army to invade Kirkwall if you keep Anders alive!" they said.

y'all, Sebby doesn't even know where he is right now, I don't think we have to worry about him doing anything ever

[fandomsareforincorrectquotes]

Hawke: Trick or Yeet?

Sebastian: uh... yeet?

Hawke: *throws Sebastian*

[canineconfetti]

I should post all of these Dragon Age emotes we use in my DA discord. You're welcome to use them if you'd like, just as long as you credit me somewhere!

[plaunsporofit]

Andraste's Grace😌🌸

[truetealtears]

Aggressive reminder that that Aveline should be included when referring to the Da2 cast as a pack of bisexuals. I see so many posts that don’t include her and it’s like ??? You can flirt with her as male or female Hawke and at no point during that does she reject you based on gender. She’ll even kiss either Hawke in one of her personal quests!!!

Aveline is not the token straight of this bisexual flock, if anyone is it’s Sebastian.

(although I wouldn’t be surprised if he did some questioning during his ‘wild youth’ and joining the chantry had him put a pin in those thoughts. That’s for a different post tho since yeah you can only romance him as fem Hawke in the game)

[cullenakingirog]

My birthday gift for my bby sister even tho it’s been around five days since her birthday but by god I’m adamant about finishing it.

This is her Hawke, Felicisima when she and Sebastian are adapting to royal life in Starkhaven after he made the choice to retake the Starkhaven throne. NGL the eye colour for Felicisima was almost hard until she described it as Mountain Dew and suddenly there we are difugidxfgv

Basically Felicisima friendmanced Seb and the two eventually did a chaste marriage until they took the Starkhaven throne. 

Also yes the scene was taken from that one Anna Karenina scene but this romance is sweeter and doesn’t end in tragedy thanks

[libartz]

Ok hear me out

Sebastian is canonically an Alistair fan.

They're both the last of their line and ended up on the throne in weird circumstances

They've both lost their families and ended up hanging out with chaos gangs

They both have adopted parental figures who are shitty to them and want to use them for their own agendas

They both have weird relationships to the Chantry

They’re both kind of unsure about being kings

Political marriages for an alliance are a thing

Therefore, gay kings

[justagayfish]

For public health and safety, *gives him brown contacts too* Screencaps belong to @dailypicturesofda2

[dosemakesthepoison]

In my head Sebastien from dragon age has a prince valiant haircut. He has the bangs. Elthina cuts his hair.

[lexsssu]

Crown (Sebastian Vael)

Flufftober Day 1

TAGS: Sebastian/F!reader

“...scratched against the wood and my skin just decided that varnished wooden furniture is too much for its delicate sensibilities. Only silks and velvet can touch my skin after all~”

Your unrestrained laughter is infectious as the rest of your motley group respond with various degrees of amusement at your antics. While some jokes may sometimes fly right over their heads, on account of your rather…odd origins, it’s always the delivery that wrenches a tiny smile from even the surliest of your companions (*cough* Fenris *cough*).

“Hear that, Choir Boy? Might wanna hurry up that retaking your throne thing. Princess can’t shack up here with the common rabble forever no matter how much she says she’s okay with it.”

The smooth unblemished skin with no calluses aside from a single one on your finger that hinted of much time spent writing (and how happy was Varric to finally have a fellow appreciator of the finer arts, particularly in story-telling) easily told anyone with a pair of working eyes that you were unused to a life of hardship and labor. A thick curtain of shiny hair, pearly-white teeth, and even the way you spoke all pointed to an upbringing at the same level of a high lord or even royalty. Yet despite the obvious gap in stations, you never once treated anyone with any less respect than what they deserved.

There is not a single bad bone in your body, occasional violent tendencies towards unscrupulous individuals aside, and it worries him sometimes that someone might take advantage of your kindness and naivety.

“She deserves nothing less than a Prince and I intend to place a crown on her head as we make our vows before the Maker and Blessed Andraste.”

The swiftness and conviction of the exiled prince’s answer made the dwarf freeze for a few moments before shaking his head and chuckling softly as he took a swig of his ale. “I don’t even have to add anything at this point when this romance story is practically writing itself…” he mutters.

Now what should his next book be titled?

[dead-noodles]

my guilty pleasure is Sebastian Vael or however the fuck you spell his name