#it’s just that Charlie is so insular in the books like I don’t think his internal monologue can be captured in a visual format right

[chapuyes]

I’m not a fan of coming to age stories but man the perks of being a wallflower was such a good book..... I used to carry that little paperback around with me everywhere

[lunuanaki]

hc; seifer & the holy dollet empire

This one is definitely the reachiest of all my headcanon posts for him; but I like it all the same??? Stay with me on this one. We’re about to go digging deep. And by digging deep, I mean I’m going to make some signature outrageous claims about trivial details.

Edit: I’ve ended up going from Gaian history to the origin story of Hyne to character symbolism and wound up using the history of everything to decide where Seifer was born, though it barely even matters. Charlie: The Overthink Expert–

According to this snippet of translated Ultimania, the Dollet Dukedom was once the Holy Dollet Empire. It’s not an empire anymore, as evidenced by the fact it needs SeeD help to stay independent, and by the fact it’s a “decaying” seaside town, more than anything. So then, something must have caused the empire to lose a lot of territory at some point (it even held Balamb at one time - refer to the Balamb bit on the above link) - something separate from the Esthar vs The World Sorceress War. For it to be calling itself Holy and to be a separate Empire from Esthar, it could only have had a conflicting ideology. However, I don’t think it was Esthar who took these guys down; I think Dollet stopped being an empire long before the Sorceress War, otherwise it would have been a far more important player during the fight with Esthar and Adel. As it stands, Galbadia was the opposing force during the Sorceress War, and that’s why it has spread to occupy much of the surrounding regions using the ol’ politics of fear as a driving force - don’t let it happen again! control everything! - whereas Dollet, with its barely-there military, has stayed static.

If we assume Dollet was defeated in a pre- Sorceress War conflict, we’re in uncharted territory. The Ultimania holds most of the official Gaian world history, and even it only refers to “a time of war” when talking about the Empire, as opposed to specifying what actually happened.

So, let’s do some shameless dot connecting, shall we?

The Holy Dollet Empire sure sounds like something else, doesn’t it? And as we all know, in any war, history is written by the victor. I can’t say I think it’s likely that Esthar would have been the opposing faction in this scenario, because they’re far too insular and forward-facing to really be involved with ideological conflicts. They were also too busy being concerned with their own internal fighting over sorceresses. They clearly don’t care about gaining territory, as they could easily have taken the whole world twice with the technology they have in the game. Besides which, if history is written by the victor and history is what Gaian children are being taught, then the origin of the story of Hyne is where we’ll find our antagonist, as this is what is being taught during the game’s timeline. Given who owns most of the world by the time the game’s era rolls round, and given that we know for definite that it has already won a war against Esthar, I think it’s safe to assume Galbadia was the opposing side during Dollet’s downfall.

Are you still with me?

Put simply, the timeline I’m proposing goes something like this:

The Holy Dollet Empire is the main player.

Galbadia grows in strength and decides to challenge its position, bringing its Hyne-based theology with it.

Dollet loses; Galbadia is now a power to rival Esthar, who have been Switzerland until now.

Dollet’s history is mostly lost - but some of its symbolism lives on.

Esthar’s Sorceress Trouble begins, and the war between Galbadia and Esthar plays out as we already it know it does in canon.

The game’s era begins.

Now, how does this relate to Seifer at all?

We know the story of Hyne (bottom of the page) could have some merit, but that it can’t be flawless. Seifer’s magic is closer to that of a Sorceress - inherent as opposed to borrowed - but he isn’t a woman, and there’s already a Sorceress in existence. Its claims that “Hyne’s magic”, aka source- or inherent magic, only manifests in women once per generation is incorrect.

(More like 1.5). I have seen people wonder if the sorceress’ knight is an inherited skill more than a given title, but I don’t buy it. If that were true, they would have a place similar to a summoner’s guardian in FFX, and the knights of history would have a much more prominent role in the story of Hyne’s descendants - it would have been touched upon in the Ultimania page above, as well, as a teacher that invested in the story wouldn’t fail to mention that there weretwo roles passed down through time. It doesn’t really work on a basic level, though, as the generational sorceress is said to be a result of Hyne’s remaining half passing through history in hiding - there’s nothing for a sorceress’ knight to be made of. It’d be totally believable if Hyne had split another part of himself off to act as an autonomous protector, but that was never mentioned (and I think it would be, somewhere).

Each of the three protagonists have an important piece of symbolism that says something about their character. Squall has Griever, the Lion, that ties in with Lionheart and with his struggle for courage and confidence. Rinoa has her angel wings, that tie in with her costume design, Angel Wing limit break and her unearthly otherness as well as her (poorly translated at times) innocence. Seifer has… a cross. But a very specific cross, one that’s been tied to the Knights Templar and bears a strong resemblance to the Saint James Cross. This is a strong piece ofreligious imagery that not only ties him to an order of knights, but sets him apart from the commonly held belief system in a deliberate way.

We know Seifer reads - he gets caught failing to return a book to Library Girl and the book he has is about knights and sorceresses. If Dollet is associated with Knights at all, he will definitely be interested. But what kicked off that interest in the first place? The Ultimania and the game tell us that he got a little bit over invested in a movie that came out when he was a kid, about a sorceress and her knight - but I don’t think a movie is enough to inspire an intelligent man to chase a pretend game from his childhood well into his adult life. So…

What if Seifer is a Dollet native?

His parents were from the region that was once the Empire. They dropped him at the orphanage, where he lived with other kids from all over. All Cid and Edea knew about them was where they came from - and that’s all they could pass onto Seifer. This sparked his interest in the Holy Empire, and began his fascination with Knights that led naturally into an enjoyment of fairy stories involving heroic knights and witches and wars. His romantic dream is not specifically to serve a sorceress - it’s to be a powerful protector of the realm (SeeD, perhaps?), but when Edea/Ultimecia chose him, it was all the same thing, only better - he became that important leader, not just like in the Dollet history books, but also like in the movies as well. The position he was given mixed his native homeland with his adopted one, allowing him a sense of belonging that he hadn’t previously been able to find.

tl;dr

Seifer is from Dollet and his romantic dream was never to serve a lady, but to be a worthy protector of his home

 (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧