#pro circle

So I've been seeing a narrative float around in the Dragon age fandom that Sebastian hates mages, and it confuses me because no, he doesn't.

Sebastian Vael is Pro-circle, not anti-mage (though there is the fact of the pro-circle ideology carrying anti-mage sentiments.) just like Vivienne is pro-circle, she isn't anti-mage, she doesn't hate mages, she just believes that the circles are better for mages, and this is due to chantry propaganda and having spent nearly her whole life in a circle.

The same is almost entirely true with Sebastian, he has spent what I assume to be years by the time you meet him first in act 1 of DA2, in the chantry's echo chamber, keep in mind he was forced/abandoned there by his family and when he had the chance to leave he stayed because he felt that he had no where else to go.

Throughout Dragon age 2, you never really see Sebastian express any explicit hatred towards mages, he tells Bethany that magic doesn't make her any less perfect, he treats Merrill like an actual person, he calls out Meredith for wanting to annul the whole circle when the only mage responsible is right in front of them.

This isn't to say Sebastian is entirely innocent in the matter of Mages and their oppressions, because he does beef with Anders A LOT but not anymore than literally everyone else in the Dragon age 2 crew (safe for Merrill and Varric) And even then Sebastian isn't even really much of a dick on the matter of mages being oppressed, he just takes it personally Anders insults the chantry, him, or Elthina (which as established prior, he has a strong attachment to the chantry because that's basically the only "loving" home he has ever had, his parents were tits)

There is this banter though, but it kind of just illustrates my point that he is pro-circle but doesn't hate or look down on mages. He frames his wanting to tell the templars as a duty, (literally says it out loud), He seems really nervous about the idea given how he hasn't already turned them in himself and Fenris literally points out that Sebastian doesn't really want to betray Hawke's friends. And Sebastian replies "that's not reason enough to allow a maleficar to walk free" - Like it's clear that he doesn't want to do it if you read the banter, but he feels like it's his duty because that's what he's been taught and conditioned to do.

On top of this Merrill practices blood magic (which Imo isn't really bad but I'm thinking about this from the perspective of someone in the chantry who has been told that blood mages are dangerous) and Anders is an abomination. I see a lot of people give Sebastian a lot of flack for this banter, and not that it isn't justified, but it's almost always due to them not giving him the same amount of grace and nuance they give to literally every other pro circle, or anti mage characters.

(and I should add that even with Merrill being a blood mage, Sebastian still treats her like a person, something I can't say the same for with damn near half of the Kirkwall crew)

To top this off, Sebastian will say that you are doing the right thing by supporting the mages and Andraste would want this if you Kill Anders and side with the mages (Or better yet, you get this mod so you can have your cake and eat it too: https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage2/mods/4016)

I'm not so sure o the exact wording as i have yet to pick that path (I played the game without the mod but am currently replaying the game at the moment) So when I might re-blog this post to show.

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Many seem to think she’s this arrogant, power hungry bitch who doesn’t care for anyone else, but there’s actually a lot more to her than that.

When asked about what her life was like in the Circle, Vivienne clearly states that there is no universal answer to what Circle-life is like; each mage has an entirely unique experience, and so their perceptions of the Circle are shaped by their own experiences. She readily admits that life in the Circle was beneficial to her, and that she actually doesn’t remember her life before she lived there.

Like Leliana and Josephine, Vivienne is a master of the Grand Game, and manages to change the position of Court Enchanter. Previously, it had essentially been a glorified court jester, but Vivienne steps into the role and turns it into an advisory position to the crown, effectively becoming magical advisor to Empress Celene. This is in spite of the fact that mages are not technically allowed to hold political positions.

From the moment she’s introduced, Vivienne is portrayed as someone who wants to Get Shit Done. She wants to join the fledgling Inquisition because like her, they want to actually fix the problem instead of just complain about it. If the Herald says that the Mage/Templar War benefits no one, Vivienne agrees. She sees the Rebel Mages’ actions as selfish, not because it took away some of her privileges, but because they show little to no regard for what the conflict is doing to the civilian populace. People have been killed, injured, or forced from their homes in the name of someone else’s war.

An undercurrent of Vivienne’s views on magic is responsibility; she openly acknowledges the potential dangers of magic, as indicated by her quote “Magic is dangerous, just as fire is dangerous, anyone who forgets this truth gets burned.” In essence, she’s saying that mages are responsible for controlling their own power, both for their sake and everyone else’s, and in her eyes the Rebel Mages aren’t. And given what we see of the apostates in the Hinterlands, she’s right. Fiona and her people are hidden away in Redcliffe, and the ones you actually fight are just thugs attacking everyone who comes close, be they Templars or otherwise. Any power can be destructive if controlled poorly, and Thedas’ magic is a prime example of this.

Her dialogue is also very telling of her character:

“In my own experience, nothing is more deadly to a young mage than a lack of knowledge.” Coupled with her first quest being tracking down books stolen from the Circle library, and her status as a scholar, this indicates that Vivienne is a believer in education for mages, likely as a means of better understanding magic and how to control it.

CONFESSION: