š for Seelah for the character questionnaire?
Thanks Ash! And thanks Fern (@2vulpes) for the asks! I was hoping for this one š
Doing this with the caveat that Seelahās a beloved Pathfinder iconic and I havenāt read all the source material she appears in! Just the game and this very essential background from Paizo.
off the top of your head: notes for characterization? what are the most essential traits of this character to you (personality traits, important connections/dynamics, voice)?
Seelah is about bringing people together. Friendship, redemption, helping people out. And sheāll charge into mortal peril to do it. She owes every moment of life beyond that teenage error to Iomedaeās forgiveness and sheās paying it forward.
She knows what itās like to be on her own with no one to count on, so sheāll be the one you can count on. She also knows what itās like to make selfish mistakes, and sheās willing to work her butt off to make up for them. She knows what forgiveness has meant in her own life.
She beats herself up over it, but I love how human and fallible she is. She doesnāt see through the deception of Anemoraās disciples or Darek Sunhammer, and she messes up with each of her friends in a different way, but always with her heart in the right place.
I think she thinks sheās dumb because of that original sin of stealing Acemiās helmet, and the sad thing is sheās willing to forgive othersā mistakes, but not her own. She was ready to inflict the ultimate punishment on herself for causing Acemiās death but she wouldnāt do that to anyone else. As she matures I think sheāll learn to be kinder to herself, and a good KC does get a chance to boost her self-image.
Her cheerfulness is her shield. She says it loud and clear: giving into sadness and grief is to risk letting demons get their claws in. Yet like her sword, that shield has a weight.
Sheās brave, reliable, down-to-earth and funny. She can hold her liquor and she can dance Daeran Arendae under the table.
The way I see it, her faith, her heart and her paladin abilities are one and the same. You canāt break her faith without breaking the rest. Thatās one point where she might be a little fragile.
adjacentlyādo you think fandom does the above traits justice? why or why not?
I avoid reddit like the plague so Iāve never seen anyone disrespect her. At their peril.
throw this character at any other character of your choice to bounce off each other as outsider pov to each otherā regardless of timeline or logistics (crossovers allowed if you're interesting about it). why this combination? what insights would they have on each other?
How about the other paladin companion: Trever Vaenic...
Weāre never told what exactly happened to him, but he set out from Carpenden a gentle, idealistic young Shelynite, but something in his path to becoming a paladin went wrong. I think the ugliness submerged him. Unlike his brother, he couldnāt see the beauty with his heart. He never walked in Shelynās grace.
And thatās very human of him. When things are looking bad, itās easy to give into despair. Still in the face of the ugliness Trever didnāt give upāhe pushed himself so hard he eventually broke. Became obsessed with discipline and punishment, and was harder on himself than othersābut also took it out on others. When you lose your heart in favor of harsh efficiency, you become a Hellknight instead of a paladin.
By contrast, Seelah kept her heart alive. Sheās had failures, and she is hard on herself, and she expects a lot of others, but ultimately sheās kind and forgiving and sees the potential for righteousness even in a succubus.
The difference between them is a cautionary tale. But also a tale of luck, because grace is bestowed, not earned. A paladin reached out a hand to Seelah, and I think no one did that for Trever.
how do you think you would react to this character in real life and vice versa? would you prefer be a million miles out of range, be amicable classmates, or fall desperately in love? (bonus: arrange a hypothetical date between yourself and this character. getting silly with it is encouraged (fakedate them! escape a dinner date through a bathroom window!))
She would fit right into my irl friend group. A lady who laughs loud and likes to party, but whoās also tough as nails and on your side. Iād love to be her special pal but Iām the wallflower (not to say weird kid) in that group.
ideal flavor of rotating for this character? crack them open and dissect themā do you want them tormented, pining, or being loved + comforted? do you have any specific scenarios you like to think about?
Sheās already been through a lot and come through the other side with flying colors but I do want to torment her just a little bit. Question her faith, if only to reinforce it. Mostly I want her to know that sheās too hard on herself. Tell her āyouāre doing great kid.ā Maybe a smooch from a kind but tormented Gold Dragon commander will help.
weave a web of dynamics through the cast for this character: which dynamics are you most interested in? both canonically and through extrapolation/speculationā which dynamics are the richest to you, and why?
As far as I know, besides Camellia and occasionally Woljif, Seelahās the only companion whoās mean to Ember. I have trouble wrapping my head around that because Seelah is such a generous soul, but my theory is that what unnerves her about Ember is that Seelahās own heart and code of mercy are so entwined with her faith that she takes Emberās atheism personally.
Every time Ember says the gods are charlatans Seelah gets really upset. Trying to put myself in a religious personās shoes I think this can be explained by the concept of grace: the unearned gift of partaking in divine natureāand Iomedaeās divine nature is that of the protector of mortality. Seelah moves in Iomedaeās grace. Ember simply negates that. In so doing, she negates Seelah herself. Kind of a slap in the face.
The thing is, they were both pulled from the pyre, Ember as an innocent, Seelah as a self-condemned criminal. Ember sees the universe, including the gods, as senseless and cruel. To her, human kindness can temporarily assuage the pain. Seelah on the other hand sees the universe as a march toward the lightātoward life and joy. To her, human kindness can move that march forward.
The other essential difference is that Ember is hung up on loss and separation (she lost her father as well as the kind knight who saved her) while Seelahās all about bringing people together (the Iomedean paladins who forgave and saved her became her friends). Emberās atheism springs from hopelessness while Seelahās faith springs from hope.
(btw the reason sheāll be able to make it up with Raqim is because unlike Emberās, his atheism springs from hope)
do you have particular niche takes on this character? defend those takes. (openly controversial takes are permitted, but also: hyper-specific headcanons which you believe in and no one else has considered enough to disagree with yet. pick a hill to die on.)
Sheās bi and not shy with potential partners. She enjoys a good romantic fling, although she hasnāt found that special person yet. Sheās a really great flirt: straightforward, funny, a bit self-effacing in her humor but confident in her attractiveness and gracious with a turn-down. However out of propriety and respect she doesnāt deploy her charms in the KCās direction. Yet.