Purez_Neon

It may come as a surprise for a lot of people, but I actually used to really hate Sebek. I thought he was loud, and annoying, and weirdly obsessive with Malleus, and just so rude to Silver and everyone around him for absolutely no reason.

But then I played the Harveston event, and he spends most of it being incredibly weird but in an oddly endearing way, before revealing his true character in his vignette: Sebek is an incredibly selfless and kind individual, with probably one of the biggest hearts in the whole series, he just hides that fact due to crippling insecurity (likely because of his status as a half-fae, his inability to defeat Silver in spars, and the fact Silver has a closer relationship with Lilia and Malleus—two fae who fully accept Sebek and he admires more than anyone in the world).

He puts himself in grave danger to protect Epel in the Harveston event, with zero hesitation, and that's just one of many instances. He protects Yuu from a bunch of tables falling on them (probably hurting himself in the process, but he of course would never admit to that). He constantly thinks he's protecting Malleus (there's this one instance with flying teapots which is ??? lmao ok), despite the fact Malleus is never in any real danger because it's Malleus, but that doesn't erase the intent. This boy would fully lay down his life to protect anyone in danger, and this isn't even touching on stuff that happens in Book 7.

I won't go into too much detail there because major story spoilers, but I am absolutely 100% certain the book would've ended in tragedy (especially for Silver) if Sebek wasn't in it. But large chunks of that book highlight another thing I mentioned: Sebek has a huge heart, full of so many emotions.

Sebek cries like all the time, over every silly little thing, and you can brush it off as him being neurotic as all hell (which I'm not denying, he kinda is) but it's simply because he cares so much. About everything. He cries because he's happy, he cries because he thinks he's disappointed people, he cries when he loses, he cries when he wins. He cries over other people's happiness, at other people's hurt. He feels so so SO many emotions he can't help but cry, and I think that's part of why he's so loud as well. His emotions are so intense he needs to be loud about them, there's literally no other way for him to cope with them, and I just adore that there's a character so genuine with their emotions in this series.

He has such a bright and genuine smile. When he's happy it lights up his entire face.

Like you could say, "well Kalim is a very smiley character, what's so special about Sebek smiling?" It's the fact it's genuine. Kalim smiles as it's a coping mechanism, he's taught himself to only show positive emotions, but Sebek shares all of his emotions. Even the ugly ones, by god does he show the ugly ones as well. Most of the cast are trying to play into a persona, or act a certain way, and refuse to let their guard down around others. They refuse to trust others and are always working to gain some kind of advantage.

Sebek is trying to play the persona of this composed, strict guard, but he lets it slip all the time that he's not actually like this. He is incredibly hard working and strict with himself, and is often arrogant about it, but he's not always like that. His sleepwear vignette, as an example, has him briefly feeling like staying in his nice cosy bed instead of being up at the crack of dawn because it's cold and he's sleepy.

He's just a teenage boy, and it shows whenever his bravado crumbles—which it does often. Particularly when Silver teases him about something from their childhood. He's a dork who named his plush squirrel "Squirshie", because it's a mix of "squirrel" and "plushie". He has such a sweet tooth, and gets on his own case about eating so many sweets, but he still can't stop himself eating them. He doesn't like coffee but wants to like it so he fits in with Silver and Malleus, and is genuinely trying to work on overcoming his aversion to drinking it just so he can feel included.

He's always putting his foot in his mouth, and says some incredibly rude things based on assumptions he's grown up with, but if you're patient enough (or unfortunate enough) to put up with him and genuinely impress upon him, he lets go of his pride. He genuinely thanks people for their advice and support, he genuinely compliments people for their skills and talents, and sometimes this comes across a little underhanded but he gives his praise with full honesty and without any ulterior motives. During the Fairy Gala he goes on this entire rant about how amazing Silver is and people literally look at him like ??? Stop bragging about someone else????? But he means it with his full heart.

He loves classic romance novels (he canonically loves two Shakespeare romances: Romeo & Juliet (he talks about "Omero and Lietju" in a vignette), and The Tempest (his horse is called Tempest)) and believes genuine, sincere communication is how people can overcome their differences and problems. Which, again, explains why he's always loudly sharing his opinion. He's trying to connect with people, and honestly hasn't had the most luck in doing so because his only friend growing up was Silver.

It's not fully explained what he means by it (as like a 40 year old fae isn't his age but is still a child), but it's mentioned the only people their age in the whole of Briar Valley are himself and Silver. Sebek went to school unlike Silver (who was homeschooled) but if he was so much younger compared to his peers, but physically aging so much quicker, that's got to feel incredibly isolating. That, on top of his insecurity towards being only half-fae, leads to this uncomfortable cycle where Sebek is trying to connect to others, but doesn't really know how to/likely developed his ego as a defence mechanism. This is fully a headcanon, but I would not be surprised to discover Sebek was bullied and that just reinforced his need to ditch his "human" identity and cling to the fae one.

Anyways this has gone on way longer than I thought it would 🫠 The be all and end all is Sebek is a very complicated and incredibly well-written character, who I can see becoming a wonderful and respected man in the future. He's showing signs of opening up to others and treating them better during and post Book 7, and he's also just incredibly funny. Oh my god he makes me laugh so much. I won't lie, my favourite moment is alongside Silver (they really are the duo of all time), but he still has moments of hilarity on his own.

He tries to argue with a goat because it was being too friendly with Malleus.

He plays a violin, horrifically, because he wants to be like Malleus so badly.

His whole "I must get over my aversion to black coffee!" mission he is seriously pursuing.

Lilia tricks him into eating the most disgusting food ever as he legitimately believes it'll improve his training.

Lilia also tricks him into believing this ridiculous and convoluted courtship ritual, where he believes he has to send a letter to his beloved once a month, and every third letter attach a picture of his 'smiling visage', before they inevitably get to have a date at a specific bench in Briar Valley where they sit a person's width apart. Yes he fully believes this despite reading romance novels.

He regularly gets into arguments with Lucius because the cat is 'too loud' and 'distracting the other students'. The hypocrisy is hysterical.

He gets annoyed at how out of shape Idia is during the NBC event, so instead of delaying things he gives him a piggy back ride and just runs around with him on his back. Idia is not having it.

Honestly he was just far too funny in that event please read it if you haven't, he's an absolute joy.

He has this incredibly petty argument with Silver about whether Lilia's suit should be red or navy (iykyk). They are both menaces, and apparently will keep at this argument for hours, and Lilia and Malleus immediately regret starting it.

They also have a petty argument about who cut down more fire lotuses. I don't think Sebek is lying about genuinely believing he won, and I know Silver isn't lying either, so that argument is never going to end they're both too stubborn.

Every year on Silver's birthday he gets into a mood because Silver stops being the same age as him. They're literally only the same age for 59 days in a year and he gets in a mood whenever Silver "surpasses" him again, like this is something Silver is actively achieving (and yet he still celebrates Silver's birthday earnestly eugh)

His breakdown over hearing Yuu call Malleus 'Tsunotaro' for the first time is still peak comedy.

Sebek with the tsum Malleus oh my god. He crouches down (they literally move his sprite slightly lower off the screen) and declares: "Please, my tsum-liege, use my head as your mode of transportation!" with complete seriousness. I was in tears. It got worse when the tsum just walked away without acknowledging him like I was going to die it was so funny.

Now for my absolute favourite moment, which I've had saved on my phone for the longest time:

I don't remember what provoked Silver to air his dirty laundry like this in front of everyone, but Sebek's face of betrayal here never ceases to make me laugh.

He's mortified ahahahahha.