Sera is more than she seems {Theory - Spoilers All} 

I'm going to pin this for two reasons: 1.) So further promote the best opinion ever that Sera is best how she is and 2.) You jogged my memory about that Bioware dev! I think Mari from Geek Remix was the one who tweeted it out and found the information- here is her video with more information on it plus her thoughts: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YTNAAF6fRf0.htmlm50s and while I put the time stamp in the link, I would recommend checking out the whole video!

Yea she unique in d way she doesn't c herself as an elf dats all der not goin make her a vessel as well I think trespasser dlc ans a lot of questions f me all doh I'll prob b wrong wit my conclusions av to c wen DA5 comes out

This is true. He even gets mad if you say "our people" or "elves" etc in reference to him. But he says "our people" to Sera.

Shit, you’re right...

Not exactly true. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9lnes2bQf-Q.html 14:35

@@saltyskegg5355 can you confirm whether it was in romance with solas or not? it is important because solas would only say "our people" to someone he grew fond of, or to someone who he has to admit the connection with them is undeniable, such as a true elvhen. That would mean if he only used "our people" with the romanced inquisitor but did not do so with the non-romanced - that means Sera has an undeniable connection to him, one that he surely knows of.

@@sorta-7272 well at the time of that scene fem elf Quizzy hasn't started a relationship with Solas yet. So technically he uses 'our people' with all elf Quizzy (both male and female)

this is a much better theory than the Sera= Evanuris one, because this one is actually plausibly true

Also sounds like general greetings.

I like this theory.

One of the Jenny's in trespasser says you'll get a name that rhymes with arse so... legit

Wait when was this omitted ?

@@goodisgood153 in the banter section where shes getting deja vu. She is seeing into the fade via the weaknesses and mistaking it for remembering

Solas also tells her she might have magical talent, though it might be a joke because she put lizards in his bed or something lol

Interesting... and she was RAISED by a human woman in human culture, not even in an alienage, so how would that name be familiar to her?

I think her hatred of all things elven isn't directed at the culture itself, or it didn't used to be. From talking to her, what I get is that she hated the pretentious attitudes of the "elfy" elves who tried to push their beliefs onto her, and over time that evolved into a generic dislike of the culture as a whole because of the people in it. And, to be completely honest, I'd agree with her if I wasn't so fascinated by the lore of Thedas.

@@cairrean2412 I think she probably suffered rejection from the dalish elves she has encountered that's why she reject their belief. If you romance her then break up with her over the issue of mythal. She tell you to say that you think that if she was smarter and a true elven she would understand. I think she fear that as a dalish when you realise the only think elfy about her is her ears you will reject her as a fake.

@@ddy7323 I do not think she fears that, since she is quite confident about herself being not elfy, but she do not like you if you become too serious about elven tradition

@@miaz3839 that's the thing, she rejects anything elfy because elfy dalish elves look down on her and see her as inferior or fake elves and reject her.

Exactly. Solas may even deny he is truly a god, but Solas is also rather hypocritical in the name of his nuance.

Given Solas view on the elven gods, if he thought she was one, she would be dead ...

I agree strongly with this point. Because if you play as a elvin Inquisitor, Solas makes multiple mocking and almost annoyed comments about comparing himself to currently living elves. He looks down on Dalish culture and feels no connection to any living elves that are not ancient ones. He wouldn't say "we are not that different" to Sera if she was just an average elf. Something is going on with her. Some connection to the fade, Andruil's spirit, something.

I think you're reading far too much in to it and adding needless complication and significance to what was most likely a meaningless, passing comment. Solas did come to realize he was unfair in his judgement of modern Elves, after all, and the more he gets to know his fellow companions the more he begins to relate to them. I highly doubt he was implying that Sera had some connection to the ancient Elves, let alone the Evanuris. Honestly, there is such a thing as going out of control with the theorizing. Not everything and everyone has to have a secret/ancient identity. No, nothing is going on with Sera. She's exactly what she seems to be, a small fish desperately struggling for relevance in a vast ocean filled with sharks. She masks her desire to spite and kill nobles beneath a Robinhood-esque façade.

I would just like to say that I personally don't care either way if Sera is "special/different" or not. It's a disclaimer to let you know I'm unbiased on this subject. Though Solas did realize his judgment of modern day elves (and other races) was unfair, it didn't automatically diminish his racial bias against them. A romanced Inquisitor is the exception, of course, but to even do that she would need to express an interest (and preference) for the old ways of the Elvhen. Sera irritated Solas, in fact. He makes a very harsh curse against her in Elvish in one of their banters. I very much doubt that he would relate himself to her had she not been special in some way. He might have dismissed her as "unredeemable" in his eyes once he figured out that she hated her heritage. Food for thought, though I don't dismiss the argument that her banter is all normal, surface level stuff that we already know about her. :)

@@Bandikitty "a small fish desperately struggling for relevance in a vast ocean filled with ocean," where do you get that? don't you think you are reading too much into that too? Sera does despite nobles and wants to kill them if they deserve it, what kind of relevance? I do not think.she yearn for relevance, at leaset not.the kind you are talking about. She stands on her own as a character, tbh I can get where she is coming from, I think she will probably laugh if she hears you.say that.

@@Bandikitty It's late and all, but I don't think she is normal. It's true, reading to much into something and coming up with weird theories is a thing that totally annoys me. Especially when those are theories where someone just spurrted out the first thing that came to his/her mind and has actually no real claim, since most of that theories can be disabled in mere seconds, just by looking at the lore. But the Sera/Andruil theory is definitely not on of those theories. I'm definitely not saying it is 100% true, but the possibility is there and the theory has a solid ground, unlike other theories. For once, there are to much similiaritys between Sera and Andruil. Also, Sera and Solas highly mirror Andruil and Fen'Harel's relationship. Some of the banter she has with Solas and Cole is pretty ominous. And we already have prove that Cole's ominous remarks during banters are more than just weird phrases. That boy literally told us who Solas is and what he did, way before the end of the main game. He also told us Blackwall's story before Revelations started. And 2 of his banters with her are too straight forward to be meaningless. Another thing that should be mentioned, is Sera's storie in DA:I, who is pretty odd compared to the other companions of the games. Usually, they all have sort of an storie arc that developes there character and changes them or how they see things, even back in Origins, if you did all your companion quests, they evolved. The exceptions are always those characters that surve a higher purpose in later games. And funnily, the only character that hasn't changed a bit, is Sera. We didn't REALLY learned anything about her and her personal quest didn't triggered some sort of development in her

Yeah, and the Codex about Andruil also says that she managed to make an armor out of the Void and it drove her crazy. And Sera a) fears the Nothing and b) after the Fade she says that in the realm of the Fear Demon she was attacked by Nothing, don't remember the exact quote, but it implied that there were the items of Nothing Although I am on board with the idea that some companions are allowed to be simple people chillin' with the protagonist

I always interpreted The Nothing to mean insignificance. She wants to do good in the world, but all she can manage is a band of hoodlums, who (Before joining the Inquisition) didn't amount to anything. All her efforts, all in vain...Sera "The Nothing".

Full Auto Skeptic maybe, that would be a nice touch, too)

Other people might consider the efforts of the jennys to be insignificant, but Sera doesn’t. She likes them exactly as they are: a little group that sticks up for the little guy. She’s not interested in recognition or significance. I really don’t think that can be what is meant by “the nothing”

Tharess Crestar, thats right. I think, sera is one of the forgotten ones. Solas said to her : "Ar dirthan as ir elgara, ma sula evar, vhenan." i couldnt translate it perfektly, but its something like "i know, i am elgara?, you........, my heard." maybe they were friends / in love, once?

Yeah, but Varric also calls Solas "elf" and if Sera's there she takes offense to it. I've always thought part of that was just Sera hating being lumped in with the Dalish just because she's got pointed ears.

She goes to great lengths to hide where she comes from, and anything real about who she is. She is very immature, in the way that people use to disguise pain, or mask over real emotions. Sera speaks in riddles for the most part. When talking to Solas/going through Trespasser, Solas talks about all the elven gods being imprisoned. This is what he believes. If Sera is Andruil, it would make sense. She is the goddess of the hunt and survival. If any of the other gods would survive, it would be her. Solas talks about the pain he feels for the other gods, but when he was the one doing the imprisoning, and being hunted I think his pain would be less than Andruils, had she survived. So much pain she runs away from it? She suppresses it to the point she is no longer Andruil. She would have had thousand of years to fully suppress who she is at the point of Inquisition that even Solas doesn't recognize her. I don't think this cheapens Sera at all, I think it makes her character more rich.

Or, and FAR more likely, the person who wrote her was so enamored with the notion of creating a 'non-elfy' Elven character that he spared little thought for her origins, choosing instead to focus on making her as over the top crazy as possible. These little quotes of hers that people give such significance to were just the writer's overeager attempts to make her seem quirky and unique. The banter between her, Solas and Cole is meant to illustrate her aversion to all things magic related and Solas and Cole's attempts to make it less frightening to her and to make her more accepting. Solas, when he said she was the furthest from what she was meant to be, is clearly referring to the fate that's befallen ALL Elves. All of them are not what they were meant to be. Abelas even refers to them as shadows (exact words: "shadows wearing vallaslin"). Sera in particular is not as she ought to be because she is an Elf who has a clear aversion to her own kind, to her rightful heritage. Solas slept through all the thousands of years of strife the Elves endured and he's only been in the modern world for a single year. Do you even consider that amidst all your theorizing? Think of it logically. You have Fen'Harel HIMSELF walking the earth once again, but for him, he lived for countless years, thousands, or even tens of thousands, in the Elven empire are the very height of its power. That is all he's ever known. After banishing the Enavuris he SLEPT and when he woke up the world was completely different from what he was familiar with. Can you imagine how jarring that would be? The Elves are but shadows of their former selves and for Solas, who slept through it all, the days of the Elven empire still seem like yesterday. He didn't feel the thousands of years during which he slept, that passed him by, like you falling asleep at night and waking up the next morning. Can you recount the hours during which you slept? Of course not. The transition from night to day, when passed through sleep, almost feels Instantaneous. To Solas, it would almost feel like the Elven empire crumbled overnight. Then he encounters modern Elves, who are nothing like the People as he knows them. And worse, someone like Sera, who is an Elf but who bears a distinct prejudice for Elves and an intense fear of magic and all things even remotely connected to the arcane. To Solas, a genuine ancient Elf, she is the farthest thing from the People he knew as one can get. That's what he meant. Not that she was somehow more than what she seems. She ISN'T. All of Solas' banter with Sera is him trying to make her accept her heritage because he has such a hard time reconciling an Elf like Sera with the magical Elves he used to know. To Solas, magic is as natural as breathing and someone like Sera, especially with her being an Elf, is difficult for him to comprehend. Again, the Elven empire no doubt seems like just yesterday to him. He's only known the modern world for one year vs the thousands of years he likely lived in Elvhenan (sp?). He isn't implying that Sera is special, he's just trying to make her more what he feels an Elf should be, hence why he's constantly offering to teach her magic, or test her for any dormant magical abilities. Seriously, not everything has to have some deeper, veiled significance. It should also be noted that the person who wrote her, if I recall correctly, did not write any other character; Sera was his one contribution, which speaks volumes. When DA:I was first being advertised and their characters displayed they made a great fuss about Sera being the most un-elflike Elf ever, and it was toted as a good thing. It backfired on them. There's really nothing more to her, she was a failed attempt at creating a unique and quirky character. Period. Honestly, the Sera theorists are just adding needless complication and depth where none exists. Sort of reminds me of Chicken Little. An acorn falls and plonks you on the head and because of that you think the sky is falling. Something fell from above ergo it MUST mean a part of the sky fell, surely it couldn't be something so simple or mundane as an acorn. You grasp at minute, sporadic details and desperately try to prove they are relevant and connected in some way with no other logic than it's what you want to think. How in the world would Sera come to possess the soul of an Elven god? The Evanuris were ALL sealed away with the exception of Mythal and HER soul, or its remnant, is already accounted for. And she certainly cannot possess the soul of an Old God, because that child is also accounted for and in any case Sera is both too old to be the Old God child (already identified as Kieran) of the fifth Blight and far too young by several centuries to be the Old God child of the fourth Blight. There isn't even any evidence that any Old God child other than Kieran has ever been born, which is a safe bet because until the Hero of Ferelden every warden documented killing an Archdemon DIED in the killing, which pretty much ends all possibility of another Old God child existing. Because if they had existed the wardens who struck the killing blows would have been documented as living, but the Hero of Ferelden is the only one with that distinction. That's why his survival was met with such incredulity by some, because all other Archdemon slayers died, to a one. The Hero of Ferelden is singular in that he is the only warden to ever survive killing an Archdemon. So, it is a pretty safe bet that Sera is NOT the vessel of either an Old God or one of the Evanuris. She's just Sera - a sociopathic, short-sighted, vapid, magic fearing bigot with a prejudice against her own kind likely born from a deep-seated, long hidden, sense of inferiority. Your assertion that her having the soul of an Elven God explains her aversion to magic is nonsensical at best. HOW, exactly, would possessing such a soul make her fear and loath magic? The Elven gods were big on magic so, if anything, someone who possessed an Elven god's soul would be MORE interested in magic, not blindly terrified of it. Flemeth (the only one who actually does possess a fragment of one of the Elven gods, I hope you recall) is a marvelous example of this and a direct contradiction to such a bizarre claim. Flemeth's connection to Mythal makes her one of the most powerful and knowledgeable magic users in all of Thedas; she certainly has no fear of it in any way, shape or form. So, I just have to ask, why in the WORLD would you think a person with an ELVEN God's soul would FEAR magic? There is no logic to that whatsoever and shows just how much you're grasping at straws. If anything, Sera's blatant fear and hatred for magic is further proof that she ISN'T what you want her to be. She is not the vessel for anything or anyone.

But the character was overall so hated, that maybe they wont bother to bring her back.

That's sad really. I liked Sera. The only character I did not like was Vivienne (Mme Le Fer)...and after I abolished the circle she created her own at the end of it all. Was not impressed that she's the most overpowered character to boot.

@@Bandikitty Kudos, you, brave, controversial BAMF. People in the Fandom make up too many weird theories. Giving in too much to the writers. They have written too many stories. And they are human after all. Prone to errors and repetitions, understandably.

Wait, what do you mean by "if she is with Dagna"?

In the Trespasser DLC unless Sera is with a female Inquisitor she gets into a relationship with Dagna or her 'Widdle' as she affectionately nicknames her

It's not Dagna, it's Scout Harding... I think...

Andrés De la Oliva Guzmán Sera definitely romances Dagna it says so at the very end of DA:I and in the Trespasser DLC. And it is Dagna because prior to me playing Trespasser i googled it and found out. if that is what youre saying

You're right!! I don't know why I thought it was Harding xD

Here I am nearly 3 years later replying to you, still hoping we learn more in the next Dragon Age game.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense really, and why Solas takes an interest in her.

Sera is as much a Mage as Dalish (Bull's Chargers) is a Mage.

I think she's trying to suppress who and what she is in fear of history repeating

That is actually more believable than her being an tranquilled elven god reincarnated, for the simple reason that Solas would already have killed or resealed her

BioWare was actually going to make her magic abilities an unique specialization but the idea was scrapped because it was breaking character (she hates magic so she won't use it even if she could).

We really don't know the context of Andruil. Its consistent in DA that myth says one important thing, but you have to be there to know better.

Feels like an easter egg to me; I doubt they had planned through DA3 during Origins...but ya never know!

I just assumed she was playing with blocks, because she was just a kid during the Blight.

@@maxsalmon4980 Yeah, it was just supposed to be an easter egg from what I remember. Doesn’t mean there isn’t any significance to it though. Who knows?

"I can't feel my legs." ohhhh josey XD

i similarly don't care if Sera is not what she seems. except i hate her.

@@gendoruwo6322 😞

@@gendoruwo6322 hate her too

Yeah, bigoted elves are lit

​@@somelonelyshmuck4274Yes, I am also a fan of an unapologetically self-hating racist with black and white mentality, as well.

Freud is totally a dummy to todays standards- but my point of bringing him up was that I believe that people are looking at something that has a totally reasonable explanation and reading too much into it- much like Freud would do. I feel like cognitive dissonance doesn't match with that point very well- do you mean that Sera is effected by it?

It's not even by today's standards. The dude didn't even use the scientific method. But feh. I don't want to rant about Freud. I want to rant about Sera! I've been putting together research on the "Sera is Andruil" theory and I've been trying to look at it from both sides. What keeps popping up to validate Sera's reactions as a person rather than a goddess is that she has trouble reconciling shades of grey in her beliefs. The best example is after the Well of Sorrows where she can't reconcile elven gods existing and ALSO the Maker existing, so she says they must be demons because any other answer doesn't follow her preconceived notions. Every time you see Sera freak out, it's because she has a belief she holds as a 100% true and doesn't have any room for new beliefs or compromise. Elves suck because they tell her she's not good enough, and she knows she's good enough. Nobles suck for the same reason and also because they use their influence to step on people. Elven gods also suck because they counter her belief in the Maker. Everything she craps on goes back to her experiencing cognitive dissonance about it. It can't be true because she believes everyone's made equal by the Maker and good people do good things and bad people do bad things. And that's that. I guess what I was trying to say was is that if you're going to argue against the Andruil theory, cognitive dissonance is the best counter I've been able to find to it. There's a reason Sera has holes in her memory and becomes violently opposed to certain beliefs and philosophies. Since this is Thedas, it could just as easily be a mental disorder or magic.

I'm not Freud's biggest fan either. But, in his defence, your comment 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar' to presumably dismiss his apparent obsessions in your video was supposedly one which he himself made to an indignant student referencing the cigar he was sucking on at the time

@@ClintEPereira I think you are perfectly right with your last sentence. Sometimes, in fantasy litterature, the most effective way to portray an interaction between a human mind and the supernatural (for example, demonic possession) is getting inspiration from true mental disorders. That's because most ancient legends about possessions and haunting come from real life mental disorders that were unknown to medicine at that time. In my opinion, it can be both. I personally think there are good elements for both versions

Wasn't Sera being a potential mage confirmed by someone in the dev team? I thought I read something about it. That's why she keeps having deja vu. And the other things.

Seems to me that elves, having been a magical race in the time of Arlathan, are just more sensitive to magic. Usually. Of course, there are exceptions to this as there are to everything, but it would explain a lot, I think.

This is the right way to see it. I mean, if you look at DA 2 for example, you can see that characters have a huge amount of dialogue but nothing is going anywhere with it, and just like so the characters in Inquisition also have many not interesting dialogues that come up here and there, but then there are also dialogues with hidden info, certain meanings, an actual idea behind the lines, that's exactly Cole and Solas to Sera, it must have a meaning.

But why would the writer make an important character someone they hate to write. 🤔

Nooooo, please, I hope not, I really dislike this character.

Yeeeeees, i hope so, i really like this character.

Hope she returns as well! Love her.

Care to expand?

​@@RashidMBey Andruil went mad stalking the Forgotten Ones in the Void. Mythal cured her in part by taking away her knowledge of how to get to the Void. So if Sera is Andruil, then it would make sense that her greatest fear is the Void and also that she might not be able to name it exactly.

@@SopranoOfTheNight Just like that I'm on train "Sera is Andruil" It also would explain Sera's lingering madness and nonsense in a way that I can more closely appreciate it, tbh. Thanks! That's rad!

@@RashidMBey Shes also the only one that remembers the name of Andruil's lover in Jaws of Hakkon... something she shouldnt know being just a city elf. I also saw another person saying there's a mosaic depicting Aldruil and their lover (Ghila'nain I think it is) and one of them looks like Sera's tarot card, can't verify that one though

"I think that singer lady is trying to chat me up. That song is creepy"

I can't stand her and it has nothing to do with her being a lesbian. Just speaking to her, seeing the things she approves or disapproves of.

When I think of Sera, the last thing I think of is her sexuality. It's her prejudice, rudeness and selfishness that I have a hard time overlooking.

She's blatantly racist against her own race, kinda like a white liberal in the US

she is not treated as "the leasbian", she is treated as an annoyng obnoxious shit that she is

She's incredibly annoying and unnecessarily mean to the Levellan Inquisitor if they even mention something "elfy". She has a lot of hate and is really bitter. I suppose it could be never being able to fit in and that she really hates herself, kind of like Morrigan (who I also can't like no matter how hard I try). Her being a lesbian is the last thing on my mind when I think of her.

It's the bratty attitude and pug dog face

She is childish, rude and obnoxious. She is barely tolerable. Not to mention her voice is so damn annoying. She is the worst companion. Her banter however is sometimes entertaining.

​@@youngarchivest9092 I wanted to like her. I really did. She's just too tonally dissonant with the setting. I feel like I have custody of a nasty child too dimwitted for a nuanced perspective, too sure in her stupidly simplistic view to understand geopolitics and what's universally at stake here. Every time she speaks I'm compelled to ask why she's here, and, because I want her archery, I have to babysit her and her obnoxious attitude. Every other companion brings something vital to the party as far as perspective *except Sera*. She kills nobles? Absolutely cool, especially with how oppressive and abusive they are. She runs an anonymous network of the peasant class as a sort of invisible union that keeps masters in check? Cool. Absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, we get to know her personality, and it undercuts the only cool things about her.

she could have a human and an elf for parents

Yes, but I just hope she doesnt appear in DA4.

Probably not. Andromeda does feel a lot like a B Team Inquisition, or iow a worse inquisition. That i feel is important. Andromeda being made by the B team which DA4 wont be.

Perry Chandler_ob haha not tranquil really, she would have no emotions and she has too much of those

@Melody Ackerman did we play the same game? Play it again. Was tranquil for a short time.

Or been made tranquil and had it reversed like a Seeker. But who or why someone would do that *shrugs*

@@Rodshark75 her religiosity may have drove her to do it. She has mental break downs over stuff that isnt this or that, right or wrong, yes or no. She could be like that mage that was in dragon age 2 that had a high risk of going crazy. And we had to go in his mind because demons we constantly trying ti get him