Sebastian Blood


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

"I loved this city"

- Sebastian's last words to Isabel Rochev

Sebastian Blood, also known as Brother Blood, was the mayor of Starling City, a former alderman, and an undercover member of the Church of Blood who rose to power following The Undertaking and one of Season 2's main antagonists. 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. Sebastian was to acquire an army of Mirakuru soldiers to cause enough destruction in Slade's name, and to enforce a new era where he will guide the people of the city. Sebastian also became friends with Oliver Queen who ironically was The Arrow and primary enemy of Slade and seemingly develops feelings for Laurel Lance. His mayoral campaign was also challenged by Moira Queen until her death. 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 Sebastian stole the Mirakuru cure and gave it to Oliver, and was shortly after killed by Isabel Rochev.

Sebastian was the son of the late Sebastian Sangre, and the late Maya Resik, he was also a childhood friend of the late Cyrus Gold.

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 Rezik, 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 a 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. At some point in time, Sebastian met Slade Wilson, 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.

Season 2
In "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 Blood openly insults him and his family for causing their despair and tells 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.

In "Crucible", Sebastian helps Oliver to set up a "guns for money" fundraiser for people affected by both the earthquake, and gun violence in The Glades, to reduce the increased gang activity (due to "The Mayor" rising to power as a gang leader), but is shot at, along with the crowd during the event by "The Mayor"s' men. Once the Mayor is arrested Sebastian meets with Oliver and thanks him for saving him, starting a new friendship with him. However Sebastian has his police informant Daily take Mayor to him, as Brother Blood, and administers the unwilling Mayor with the Mirakuru. However the Mayor dies in the process and Sebastian orders Daily to find him another subject.

In "State v. Queen", it is revealed that he provided Count Vertigo with a means to redistribute his product, as he knew that it would flush out The Arrow so that Count Vertigo would kill him. Upon finding that The Arrow killed Count Vertigo rather than the other way round, he is initially angry, until he is informed that the first test subject has survived (or possibly awakened from) his exposure to the Mirakuru. Brother Blood meets with Cyrus and declares that he is ready.

In "The Scientist", Sebastian was getting regular reports from Daily about movements conducted by three people looking into one of his test subjects, Maxwell Stanton's death. Sebastian gave Cyrus Gold locations of where to strike; Queen Consolidated's applied sciences division and a blood bank which were necessary for making more Mirakuru.

In "Three Ghosts", Sebastian learns from Daily that the police are planning to go after Cyrus Gold and sends Cyrus to confront them. Meanwhile, in his civilian guise, he romances Laurel Lance, taking her Christmas shopping, and announces his campaign for mayor of Starling. After Cyrus captures Roy Harper Brother Blood injects him with Mirakuru with Mirakuru. When The Arrow appears, Brother Blood orders Cyrus to kill him; Cyrus is defeated and Blood flees. He meets with Slade Wilson, who is revealed to be Sebastian's employer and the true mastermind behind the Church of Blood and is ordered not to kill the Arrow or he will die. Upon his asking, Slade tells Sebastian that he is aware of the Arrow's true identity and will see him destroyed.

In "Blast Radius", Laurel comes to his office, questioning him about his past. Sebastian reveals that his father came back home drunk and his mother killed him, promptly abandoning Sebastian as the police were coming. Cyrus became a father-figure to Sebastian when he became orphaned. As Laurel continues to investigate Sebastian, she visits his aunt, Maya Resik, who is locked up in an insane asylum that Sebastian is paying to be cared for. As Laurel asks her about her nephew, Maya reveals that she is actually Sebastian's mother. She says he killed his father and blamed her. She then begins to refer to him as the devil.

In "Blind Spot", he visits his mother Maya in the psychiatric institution and, as Brother Blood, kills her after discovering she told Laurel Lance the truth about his father's murder. After Laurel and the Arrow try to steal the police file on Sebastian's father's death, Slade threatens him and tells him to deal with Laurel, whose investigation is becoming a problem for them. He then sends Officer Daily to search and ransack Laurel's apartment and arrest her for possession of drugs. Afterwards, he has Daily kidnap Laurel and pose as "Brother Blood" in order to draw out the Arrow and remove suspicion. After Daily is killed, Sebastian is scolded for causing the death of four followers with his sloppiness by Slade. He is also warned that if he slips up one more time, he will be the fifth casualty.

In "Heir to the Demon", Sebastian is contacted by Oliver and was told he was withdrawing his support for him and is now supporting his mother Moira Queen. He is okay with it stating that blood of family is more important 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 of Moira will 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.

In "Deathstroke", 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 Slade and his henchmen. Later, he meets with Slade and Isabel Rochev at Queen Consolidated. He 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, and demands that Slade fulfill his promise to give Sebastian control of Starling City.

In "Seeing Red", 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.

In "City of Blood", after Moira is murdered by Slade, Sebastian officially becomes mayor of the city. Sebastian later attends Moira's funeral reception where Laurel becomes suspicious of him again as he became mayor just after Moira's death. Sebastian was contacted by Slade 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 had written a condolence letter the day before Moira died and Laurel told Oliver, now aware that he was Arrow, that she was right. Later Oliver personally met with Sebastian to tell him that he is the Arrow 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. Later Brother Blood addressed Slade's army unaware that Oliver and Diggle were rigging the place to explode though Isabel, as Ravager, and several henchmen handled them. Brother Blood told the troops that they will become a vital part of the Starling's future before unleashing them on the city.

In "Streets of Fire",, while Starling City was being destroyed, Sebastian was perfectly calm, until one of Slade's soldiers snapped Kate Spencer, the district attorney's neck. Sebastian immediately goes to Slade and complains about what happened, only for Slade to say that he is going to reduce Starling City to rubble. Sebastian then steals the cure of Mirakuru from Slade, and brings it to Oliver. He says that when the destruction is all over, he will try to bring Starling City into a new era. When Oliver states that the people would never accept him after what he has done, Sebastian says that if Oliver exposes him, he will expose Oliver. Oliver then leaves. Later, Isabel approaches Sebastian. After realizing that Sebastian gave away the cure for Mirakuru, Isabel stabs him. However Sebastian in his last breath declared his love for Starling City as his mask fell to the floor and he was left on his desk seemingly lifeless...

In "Unthinkable", 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.

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. 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 to begin with due to his family's involvement in the Undertaking, sometime he later apologized for once it turned into a riot, he slowly began to form a friendship with him as they both wanted to fix Starling. He also became close friends, possibly love interest, with Laurel Lance though she always thought something wasn't right about him. However he was also a cult leader who to his subordinates was a ruthless, cold sadistic megalomaniac 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 commandment among his followers. His plan is 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 becomes ever more apparent that he was a megalomaniac, truly believing that his plan is what's best for Starling City. When he betrays Slade to give the Mirakuru cure to Oliver he confessed his childhood trauma and stresses his desire to help people and when killed by Isabel declared his love for Starling with his last breath, confirming that he indeed truly had Starling's interests at heart but was very misguided. 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 Starling 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.

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.

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.
 * 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".
 * Despite allying himself with Slade, he was never truly aware of the truth behind Slade's plans until it was too late. To make up for his mistake, he gave Oliver the Mirakuru cure, before getting stabbed by Isabel.
 * Despite all his scheming and crimes on people in the Glades Oliver, even after learning his true identity and his crimes, still considered him a friend after his death. Possibly because Sebastian betrayed Slade and gave them the means to beat Slade.
 * In the Season 2.5 comics there is another Brother Blood. Though assumed to be another person with the same name, it is implied that he really is Sebastian still alive. In Unthinkable the news reports Sebastian's death as a "unconfirmed report" and Isabel didn't stab him in the heart, implying that he will return as Starling City's mayor someday.