DA:Inquisition - The Problem with Sera

Jillian from GamaSutra has written an editorial about Sera. In it, she explores why she, Jillian, doesn't like Sera much. A quote, then about stereotypes:

The fact that Bioware had the chance to destroy all stereotypes with the addition of a lesbian character, but instead chose to play into every single trope greatly saddens me and significantly lessened my playing experience. Before I loaded Inquisition up on my Xbox, I fully expected my playthrough would involve constantly interacting with and ultimately romancing Sera.

A quote from the editorial about Sera's transphobia:

Right now, we'll be focusing on the most glaring aspect of Sera's character within this concept, and that's her blatant transphobia. On top of her delightfully racist ranting, she seems incapable of not running at the mouth on other offensive topics, and I'd be willing to bet her comments likely flew under the radar of most cis players (myself included-at least during my first playthrough).

Do you agree with Jillian?




More information.

Totally disagree. Sera is my #1 DA3 NPC.

The problem with Sera is that she's in the game.

Lol poor Bioware really can't win.
My thoughts on the article the commenter Sai on the opinion piece mirrors my opinion with the exception that I like Sera, I like the crazy erraticness and the willful ignorance.

The Transphobia thing I find a bit odd(besides the fact there is no evidence there besides 3 words taken out of context).
People seem to want diverse characters until one of the characters might show behaviour or holds beliefs they are not ok with, it's weird.

I only spent about 40 hours in game, so I don't know much, but I thought that you can ignore some characters like you do it in your real life. Or is it really a key character that can't be avoided? I said yes to her when she asked me about joining, but few days later I was thinking about starting avoiding her.

Joined or not, you can completely ignore her later.

Originally Posted by Lev
I only spent about 40 hours in game, so I don't know much, but I thought that you can ignore some characters like you do it in your real life. Or is it really a key character that can't be avoided? I said yes to her when she asked me about joining, but few days later I was thinking about starting avoiding her.

She's one of the most optional companion, you don't even have to recruit her. You can also tell her to leave.

Yes about time someone released an article about this as I despise her character. I'm happy you can tell her to sod off at anytime during your game. Goodbye Sera.

Sera can be fun, especially because of her banter with oh-so-serious Solas. Otherwise, she's very much a WTF? character.

However, I am getting really, really tired of remarks like this:

As you can see above, Sera was originally slated to be designed as a woman of color, which would have brought sorely needed diversity to an already white-washed elven race.

…below a picture with an admittedly sun-bronzed Sera with blond hair and basically - what would be the politically correct term, 'western Eurasian?' - facial features.

I get her anger, agree somewhat with the WTF? reaction, but I'm not seeing her piece as a sober assessment of any kind. Too much emotion, too little analysis.

Since when have people started complaining about fictional characters?

It is ridicules! It is fiction! It is not some real life unfair situation or something.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Since when have people started complaining about fictional characters?

It is ridicules! It is fiction! It is not some real life unfair situation or something.

You mean like Skyrim is just a game and not a real life unfair situation or something?

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
You mean like Skyrim is just a game and not a real life unfair situation or something?

Skyrim is obviously just a game ( or maybe a world generator more than game ) and a really bad one at that. But how are these two related

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
Skyrim is obviously just a game ( or maybe a world generator more than game ) and a really bad one at that. But how are these two related

Since when have people started complaining about Skyrim?

It is ridicules! It is just a game! It is not some real life unfair situation or something.

Sera is very entertaining, one of my favorite ever Bioware characters. However, I could see how some people would be annoyed by her, and she can be skipped altogether so that seems good to me.

*shrugs* I like her. And sadly I didn't pick up that she was a lesbian even after she told me she was "into girls". I figured she was bi at least. So of course I don't romance anyone else thinking she'll come around.

Story of my life, actually.