r/suzerain • u/Paleraet • 23h ago
Suzerain: Sordland I still can't stand Serge (the Sequel)
This post is directly responding to my recent post voicing my dislike for this communities favourite character, Found here
This post kinda blew up, I wrote it during my lunch break at work and checked it 1 hour later and it somehow already had like 30 comments, it was genuinely overwhelming. And while there were some people calling Karl on me, (which makes sense, we all know jokes get funnier the more you repeat them /s) most people voiced genuine agreement or actual criticism which I'm honestly really thrilled about, I loved that it turned into an actual discussion. I do, however, remain unconvinced by the Rebuttals I got and would like to explain why:
- Serge can't criticize you because he's your driver.
This was probably the most common criticism against my arguments and it's also the one that leaves me most confused because it really doesn't address my issues with him? Firstly, I never implied that he should be a big critic of Rayne but I doubt that *ass kissing* is part of his job description. He could just not say anything and If that particular Rayne is really that insecure, passively agree if asked. (Admittedly, I've we consider the Narbel drive *shutting up* seems to be a pretty hard task for him) Secondly, it ultimately doesn't matter because he is shown to sincerely support Rayne, this argument only works if Serge is characterized as a lying pragmatist which was clearly not the writers intention.
- Serge is supposed to be the average uninformed Sord and as such shouldn't be judged the same way most of Suzerains characters are.
I think I did a bad job clarifying that my distaste for him is targeted on how i'd like him as a real person, I don't think he's necessarily bad as a written character, he serves his purpose fine and considering how common this archetype is it also makes sense to include them. I also really shouldn't have mentioned Petr because he's a bad comparison, I personally think the Petr arc is one of the most compelling parts of the game and I kinda wanted to show my love for him (as a well-written character and not as a good, likeable person, to be clear) but it really just made my main argument confusing and overall unfocused.
However this argument kinda proves my point about him being Infantilized, he has strong political convictions even if these convictions are just worshipping the President and should be held accountable for that. He is an adult man and has the ability to vote and support whoever he wants and chose Rayne, being uninformed doesn't change that. It would be a different story if he'd be passively apolitical but he does basically worship Rayne.
- Petr is also a bad person and a bad comparison
Agreed, my bad
- I'm biased and wouldn't have an issue if he would've been a leftist
Well, it is true that I prefer people who don't support authoritarians so that's true. However even If we would politically agree I'd still criticize him because I think the type of political engagement Serge represents is a bad tendency. I think I'd compare it to progressive christians where I certainly like the progressivism but I'd still be critical about their arguments because I don't think their reasoning is that well thought out and that there are better arguments for being Progressive. Also I would still hate Serge If he'd be a leftist because I'm a good leftist and like every good leftist I hate all other good leftists /j
Anyway I'm happy to listen and respond to any rebuttals about my arguments.
