Sebastian Vael ISN'T Anti-Mage! (Just very ignorant/Brainwashed and 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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Please excuse any poor wording/formatting, I've barley been a lurker on tumblr and this is kinda my first time making a post on here. Plus i suck at proof reading so I genuinely hope this makes sense.

















