Sebastian Blood


 * For his successor, known under the same alias, see Clinton Hogue.

"I love this city."

- Sebastian's last words to Isabel Rochev

Sebastian Blood was the mayor of Star City and an alderman, who rose to power following The Undertaking. Sebastian was a devoted alderman whose desire was to help people and dedicated himself to restoring Starling City following the Undertaking and allied himself with Slade Wilson to do so. As the third-in-command of the Church of Blood, Sebastian, given the name Brother Blood, was to acquire an army of Mirakuru soldiers to cause enough destruction in Slade's name, and to enforce a new era where he would guide the people of the city. However, when Sebastian became mayor, Slade betrayed him and decided to lay waste to the city totally, finished with an airstrike from A.R.G.U.S.. Feeling betrayed, the original plan having been changed, Sebastian stole the Mirakuru cure and gave it to Oliver, and was shortly after killed by Isabel Rochev. He injected Roy Harper with the Mirakuru. He also killed his mother.

Early life
Sebastian Blood was a young man who was born and raised in the crime-riddled neighborhood known as the Glades. His father was an abusive alcoholic and his mother was submissive to it. His father scared him so much that he would often have nightmares, these being so bad he would wake up panicking and sweating in fear, frequently envisioning his father in the image of a skull. One day, his father came home extremely enraged and had threatened to kill them both with a gun. Sebastian got a hold of it and shot his father dead. As the police came to his home, Sebastian's mother, Maya Resik, received the blame for her husband's death and was arrested then placed in a psychiatric institution. Upon being placed in an orphanage, Sebastian met a preacher named Cyrus Gold, who he began to view as an older brother/father-figure. One day when Sebastian couldn't take the nightmares of his father, he created a skull mask made the same way he saw his father in his dreams, as a means of conquering his fears and to remind himself to never give up.

Working with Deathstroke/Becoming Brother Blood
At some point in time, Sebastian met mercenary Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, who offered to make him mayor of Starling City. Seeing that the city needed to be saved, Sebastian agreed and began his mayoral campaign after the Undertaking took place. His campaign also drew a large following as people branded "Blood for mayor" on the walls, as Mayor Altman's reputation had tarnished after the Undertaking. Slade also promised him an army of soldiers, strength enhanced by Mirakuru within Slade's blood, to lay waste to Starling City to further support his following. Sebastian formed a cult to re-develop the serum from Slade's blood and test it on unwilling Glades residents found through a blood drive and among his followers included his friend Cyrus and Officer Daily but all of his followers branded him with the name "Brother Blood". Despite being leader of the cult Slade always had some degree of power over him and Sebastian seemed to cower in his presence. He also became associated with Slade's right-hand woman Isabel Rochev/Ravager.

Mayoral campaign/Mirakuru plot
Sebastian arranged for The Hoods, The Arrow copycats bent on forcing Starling's authority figures into fixing the city at gunpoint, to assassinate Altman and allow Sebastian's campaign to begin. While on the way to his office Oliver saw "Blood for Mayor" written on a wall and Diggle elaborated on Sebastian's identity. Sebastian preaches outside the Starling City hospital which is getting robbed by the Chinese Triad claiming that the police do not care about the people of the Glades. Soon after Oliver Queen exits the hospital and the alderman openly insults him and his family for causing their despair, telling Queen to leave them alone. Later Blood realizes that he was harsh on Queen and the two decide to have a fund raiser to help the Glades but Oliver doesn't show up. Despite the insistence of Laurel Lance, Oliver's best friend, Sebastian tells everyone that he hasn't arrived and obviously doesn't care about the Glades.

Sebastian attends a Queen Consolidated held party at Oliver's house with Laurel whom he discussed the matter of the "Mayor" smuggling guns into the Glades and overhears Oliver discussing the same subject and joins in their conversation. Sebastian later meets Oliver at Queen Consolidated where he "meets" Isabel and helps Oliver to set up a "guns for money" fundraiser for people affected by both the earthquake and the Mayor's wrath. However the Major interrupts the event ordering it to be called off and Sebastian bravely stands up to them only for the Mayor to open fire on the crowd and Oliver barely saves him. He later meets with Oliver to thank him for saving his life, sparking a new friendship between them, and Oliver showed his support for Sebastian's campaign. However Sebastian has Daily take the Mayor to his testing lab inside in a secret room near his office. Brother Blood then has his men administer the unwilling Mayor with the Mirakuru. However the Mayor dies in the process and Brother Blood orders Daily to find him another subject. Among his volunteers was his old friend Cyrus and Maxwell Stanton.

Sebastian meets with Count Vertigo and assists him to recreate his vertigo drug to plague the city by administering it to citizens across the city without their knowledge through vaccines, to draw out Green Arrow and kill him. After Vertigo abducts A.D.A. Adam Donner and drugs him on his request to announce his intentions, Sebastian meet with D.A. Kate Spencer to discuss Donner's abduction but saw that Spencer was more interested in convicting Moira Queen. Upon finding that Green Arrow has killed Count Vertigo rather than the other way round, he is initially angry, until he is informed that Cyrus has survived his administration of the Mirakuru. Brother Blood meets with Cyrus and declares that he is ready. Brother Blood had Cyrus, now The Acolyte, break into Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences Division to steal a Kord Industries centrifuge to further replicate the Mirakuru Sebastian was also getting regular reports from Daily about movements conducted by three young people looking into Stanton's death but he encouraged it before ordering Cyrus to rob a blood bank.

Sebastian publicly announces his mayoral campaign and begins to romantically warm up to Laurel and sends her flowers with an offer to go Christmas shopping. He is informed by Cyrus that The Arrow is dead and his technician begin replicating the serum which will be finalized in two days, but is also told by Daily that the police are onto Cyrus and Sebastian orders him to kill the police, but under orders not to kill Officer Quentin Lance and Daily himself, but manages to kill Detective Lucas Hilton. Sebastian and Laurel later go Christmas shopping though she is forced to leave when told about her father's hospitalization but he goes himself to check up on her. Sebastian has Cyrus and the technician destroy any evidence of Stanton's murder by burning down the blood drive facility, though also found Roy Harper sneaking around and Acolyte brings him in. Brother Blood then administers the serum to Roy before The Arrow storms the facility to get answers but is injured by Acolyte and Roy appears to O.D. and Brother Blood deems him "another failure" and orders Acolyte to kill The Arrow, though he manages to destroy the serum and Acolyte as Brother Blood escapes. Sebastian later meets with Slade to report his failure though he agrees to have another blood sample sent to him but warns him not to engage Green Arrow, or he will die. Sebastian realizes that Slade knows The Arrow's identity which he confirms and informs Sebastian that he intends to take everything that matters to him away from him before killing him.

For 5 weeks The Arrow goes on a manhunt for Brother Blood, unaware he is actually Sebastian, with no luck. Sebastian begins to develop deeper feelings for Laurel though she insists that they're just friends. Sebastian holds a rally in Verdant labelled "Sebastian for Starling" and gives a speech to motivate his supporters, though Laurel begins to feel off about him and later comes to his office, questioning him about his past and his connection to Cyrus Gold. Sebastian tells her about his abusive father but misleads her and tells her that his mother killed his father before running off, never to be seen again. He also reveals his friendship with Cyrus but also lies about any involvement in his criminal activities, but Laurel finds notes on his desk connected to Maya. In the wake of Mark Scheffer's bomb attacks Sebastian holds another rally in times square to stand up to him but The Arrow visits him and strongly advises against it. At the rally Green Arrow saves Sebastian by shooting a grenade meant for Sebastian and later visits the alderman in his office congratulating him and Sebastian returns compliments. Sebastian extends that hand of friendship to save the city through their respective means and The Arrow accepts.

Sebastian visits Maya in the hospital who reveals that she told Laurel the truth of his father's murder and begs forgiveness which Sebastian did but as Maya lay down on her bed, Brother Blood re-emerged and caused her to have a heart attack killing her. Later Oliver visits Sebastian and asks about Laurel acting different but claims to know nothing but will look into it, and is later visited by Slade who brings him the file on his father's murder and scolds him for almost allowing Green Arrow and Laurel for foiling their plan. He then tells him to fix the problem rather than have Slade fix it for him and then has Daily expose Laurel's drug problem and have her arrested to discredit her, calling Spencer out of concern. Brother Blood later storms Laurel's apartment, knocks out Oliver, then abducts Laurel but he gives his mask and suit to Daily so he can masquerade as Brother Blood and is killed to throw Laurel off Sebastian's trail. However, as Sebastian reports his success to Slade an enraged Deathstroke emerges and kills his bodyguards and scolds him for being incompetent and threatens to kill him should he fail again. Sebastian is contacted by Oliver and was told he was withdrawing his support for him and is now supporting his mother Moira Queen running for mayor. He is okay and tells Oliver it will not jeopardize their friendship. Immediately after he meets with Moira in Queen Consolidated and demands she withdraw from her campaign, and Moira challenges him not to underestimate her after Blood asks which side people would see, the strong leader, or the one manipulated by Malcolm Merlyn. Afterwards he meets with Slade and is informed Slade will be handling Moira Queen personally.

Brother Blood kidnaps Thea after Slade takes her to his hideout. Later Sebastian attends a mayoral debate against Moira Queen, which is interrupted by a video of a frightened Thea, broadcast by Deathstroke and his henchmen and temporarily cancels his campaign to devote it's resources to "finding" Thea. Later, he meets with Slade and Isabel at Queen Consolidated but argues with Slade, furious that Thea's kidnapping has resulted in a sympathy vote for Moira that will all but assure her victory in the election which he let happen. Sebastian demands to know his obsession with the Queens, which Isabel finds amusing that he doesn't know, and demands that Slade fulfill his promise to give Sebastian control of Starling City. However Slade angrily insists that he is keeping his promise before leaving to continue his plot to destroy the Queens. Moira visits Sebastian in his office to tell him that she is dropping out of the election, which confuses him; however, he understands once Moira tells him that she needs to be with Thea as she is going through a tough time. However, later Moira decides against it and on TV announces that she will continue to run for mayor, much to Sebastian's annoyance. After Sebastian was informed by Slade that he would kill her the night of her rally, he wrote a condolence later.

After Moira is murdered by Slade, Sebastian officially becomes mayor of the city. Sebastian later attends Moira's funeral reception, offering his condolences to Thea but Laurel becomes suspicious of him again as he became mayor just after Moira's death. Sebastian was contacted by Slade, pretending to be his father, when he was settling into his new office and told him to remember who he was still working for, and was later visited by Laurel claiming to need help with a case but secretly bugged his computer. Laurel, later with Quentin and Kelton, discovered that Sebastian's letter and realized he wrote it the day before Moira died. Later Oliver personally met with Sebastian to tell him that he is The Arrow, much to Sebastian's surprise, and tries to understand Sebastian's motives and he explains that Slade will destroy the city with his army and the people will be in a time of chaos and fear, so they will turn to Sebastian for guidance and he will lead the city into a new age. However Oliver, knowing Slade better, insists that he will not deliver on his end but Sebastian dismisses it. Later Brother Blood addressed Slade's army and tells the troops that they will become a vital part of the Starling's future before unleashing them on the city.

During the attack Sebastian received numerous calls from the state governor offering to send in the national guard but he insists the police can handle the chaos, though Spencer walks in insisting that he do something as the attacks don't seem human. However Sebastian insists Spencer to pull herself together and that together they can "save" the city. However, as Sebastian and Spencer watch the attack on the news then a member of the army slaughters his entire office staff including Spencer, the soldier telling him that he doesn't take orders from him. Sebastian later angrily confronts Slade and Isabel about the attack reminding him that he was meant to call off the attack. Though Slade insists that he kept his promise to make him mayor but reveals that he never intended to call off the attack and only ever wanted to see Oliver Queen suffer and reduce Starling City to ashes. Sebastian helplessly watches the attack with Slade as a soldier deliverers the Mirakuru cure to him and Sebastian regretful of his actions, steals the cure and informs Oliver. Oliver and Diggle arrive in his office where he reveals his childhood trauma and the origins of his mask before giving the cure to them and promising to fix the city once he wins, seeking redemption. However Oliver scolds Sebastian for believing he will still be mayor and despite Sebastian's threat to tell the public that he is The Arrow should Oliver tell the public he is Brother Blood, Oliver simply tells him to do what he wants. He then drank in his office as he waited for Isabel who informed Slade of Sebastian's betrayal but as he tried to scold Slade for his betrayal as Slade simply told him goodbye as Isabel stabbed him, Sebastian declaring his love for Starling with his dying breath as his body lay on his desk and his mask fallen to the floor. His death is reported as an "unconfirmed report". Oliver also uses him as an example when talking to Roy about crucibles like Sebastian once told him and called him "a friend", implying that he forgave Sebastian in the end.

Legacy
Sometime after his death, a woman named Celia Castle, succeeded Sebastian as mayor of Star City, also Clinton Hogue succeeded him as Brother Blood.

It can be assumed that his involvement in Slade Wilson's attack on Star City was exposed to the public; albeit he did not know that Slade was planning to destroy Star City.

Oliver also uses him as an example when talking to Roy about crucibles like Sebastian once told him and called him "a friend", implying that he forgave Sebastian in the end.

Ironically Oliver himself would run for mayor nearly 2 years later and used Sebastian's old campaign office.

Personality
Due to the abusiveness of his father, Sebastian was a scared, frightened child but used that fear as motivation to fix his home city at any personal cost but his childhood trauma clearly damaged him as it drove him to megalomania. Sebastian was shown to be charismatic and commanding, being able to win over crowds so large they wanted him to become mayor and branded his name on walls. Though he initially resented Oliver due to his family's involvement in the Undertaking, sometime later he apologized for once it turned into a riot, and he slowly began to form a friendship with the billionaire as they both wanted to fix Starling. He also became close friends with, possibly even a love interest of, Laurel Lance, though she always thought something wasn't right about him. However, he was also a cult leader who was a ruthless, cold sadistic megalomaniac to his subordinates, one who cared little for body counts to further his own needs. He also used his own personal skull mask as a means of intimidation and inspiration among his followers.

His plan was to use an army of Mirakuru soldiers to worsen the already broken state of the city, to cause enough damage to make the whole city suffer, so when ready Sebastian would command the people to rebuild Starling into a better city, one stronger, with no economic unbalance or poverty. Upon being elected mayor, it became ever more apparent that he was a megalomaniac, truly believing that his plan was what's best for Starling City. When he betrayed Slade by giving the Mirakuru cure to Oliver, he confessed his childhood trauma and stressed his desire to help people and thus at least partially redeemed himself and was killed by Isabel, he declared his love for Starling with his last breath, confirming that despite his obvious megalomania he indeed truly had Starling's future at heart and his act of selflessness lead to Oliver's victory over Slade. Oliver seemed to acknowledge this as after his death he referred to Sebastian as a "friend".

Abilities

 * Popularity: On Sebastian's alderman side, he is popular, as Star City wants him to become mayor. He has shown to be capable of winning positive attention.
 * Commanding: As a secret cult member, Sebastian is more evil and ruthless, as he captures criminals and injects them with Mirakuru. If they survive the initial injection, he forces them to work for him. This could be a vigilante-type thing, as he believes he is ultimately saving the city with Mirakuru.
 * High-level intellect: Sebastian was able to become a member of the Church of Blood and became the mayor of Star City. He used his intelligence to trick others into working for him. He was also cunning and managed to get away with killing his father and mother.

Equipment

 * Brother Blood Mask: Sebastian wore a skull mask as his villain alter-ego, Brother Blood, to hide his identity from his victims.
 * Voice Filter: Sebastian had this device fitted in to the mask, and spoke to anyone using it when he wore the mask.

Arrow: Season 2.5

 * "Acolyte" (mentioned)
 * "Ascension"
 * "Following" (mentioned)

Trivia

 * In the DC comics, Brother Blood is the leader of the Blood Cult, rather than Church of Blood, a cult that worships the demon warlord Trigon. He is a recurring enemy of Trigon's daughter Raven, and her friends, the teen hero group The Teen Titans. Also, the Church of Blood was used by Raven to resurrect Deathstroke's son, Joseph Wilson. Brother Blood also had the ability to mind control others, a possible reference to the fact Sebastian was able to ensure the loyalty of Mirakuru soldiers, up until Slade somehow seized control them.
 * There have been multiple men who have carried the name "Brother Blood". However, Arrow's version of the character carries the name of the last Brother Blood prior to the New 52, named Sebastian.
 * Sebastian's last name "Blood" is the English translation of his father's last name "Sangre".
 * Sebastian wearing the skull mask as Brother Blood, may have been inspired by the DC comics character Black Mask, who wears a similar skull mask.