npd-characters-tournament

[npd-characters-tournament]

White Hair and Trauma Brawl Round 1; Poll 7

remember, voting is based on trauma, swag, and favoritism!!

trauma and propaganda under the cut!

Trauma! 

Iyozane: They were crown prince of an empire but they were one of those crown princes that were getting set up to be puppet rulers while having little contact with the outside world "for their own protection". Eventually they felt so trapped that they consented to being poisoned. Don't worry they got better. How? "Some stuff happened." Their words not mine.

We don't have hard evidence for much beyond that, but "Some stuff happened." in combination with them going "It seems like I forgot to tell you" when asked why they didn't tell their current allies they used to be the crown prince and someone they used to know in their old life responding with "Playing dumb as usual I see~" (fondly to be clear) or something like that, it feels like they were not in an environment where "I did/do not want to tell you" was an acceptable answer.

Other subtext about their tragic backstory can be found in the fact that their main goal in the story is to become an influential person. This comes across as their suffering in their old life being in large part due to their own powerless through it all, especially in contrast to the power one would expect to have when they're told they will become the emperor someday.

Lysithea: “HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION BABY!!!! Due to political bullshit on top of a centuries long secret war between the church and the mole people, she and her siblings were experimented on in order to bestow two Crests (this world's magic mcguffin) into her body, and she was the only survivor. As a result, her lifespan has been greatly shortened, her hair lost all color, and this event has added to her already prevalent fear of ghosts. In most endings, she dies very young if she survives the war.” 

“The trauma actually is what gave her the white hair, which should count for something. Subjected to brutal blood experiments by TWSITD (spooky underground science dark magic guys) to be given two crests. So now she's more magical which is cool and all only her lifespan was more than halved! So fun!”

Propaganda!

Iyozane: I love them because they're just. Such a mess <3 They wanted to be a pirate for a bit and had supposedly given up on it due to realizing they couldn't do much with just themself and a boat but their species is listed as aspiring pirate (side note: Len'en dev likes to write in occupations as species names sometimes, might be part of some bigger theme might be a joke) and they literally have a spell card called "Great Pirate Iyozane". In general they like to get ahead of themself <333

There's so many more examples I could give of them being a mess but I'll just sum it up shortly. They once tried to scam someone only to end up in crippling debt because it turned out they were scamming an aspiring loan shark, and they're a bitch.

Lysithea: “She loves cake. She has the best Crest combo in the game. She has the best spell pool. She's fun. She's sassy. She's driven. She's smart. If she wins this contest I will be very bappy (if you know you know). This little magic nuke is a glass canon and I love using her in battle to kill the Death Knight. She's amazing.” 

“Once again, the white hair gave her the trauma, so…”

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Propaganda

Sae Kawashigi

She does so much to be friends with the main girl only to talk shit about her and copy her at the same time and she makes herself think she’s pregnant so she can get him between the relationship the main girl has with the boys she likes omg

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Benito Ituarte

kind of a walking stereotype diagnosis. the whole game is about how he is trying to reshape a very grave and unjustifiable mistake he made because he has absolutely never done anything wrong in his entire life. he wants to look cool in front of the player. feels entitled to manipulate his best friend into anything because he literally just knows better than him. uses the one classmate he deems as most unimportant. is trying to force the one person he sees as an equal into a codependent hatred while she's practically slapping a dsm-5 on his face. has never experienced a narc crash in his life and he enters a time loop to attempt to shut down what could be setting him as wrong. worlds most harmful zero empathy stereotype. he wants to be ferris bueller so bad man ferris bueller is literally also a narcissist. also he is annoying and idont like him

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Propaganda

Erika Furudo

intelligent and very very very much loves to flaunt it to others, even if it gets to the point of trying to beat a nine year old at a trivial argument about a candy inside a cup magic trick

extremely sensitive to failure, takes each time she’s proven wrong in even a minor conversation very personally, absolutely will hold a grudge about it and try to get back to re-establish her superiority

very easily lovebombed, especially by those of higher status

super into mysteries less for the love of the game and more for the sweet sweet validation of digging into people’s secrets and seeing their shock when she’s right

breaks down very easily when her expertise/truth is invalidated

initially a mary sue self insert for another character in her debut episode, loses marysueness powers in the next episode (read episode 6 for the best narcissistic crashout <-> obnoxious high metronome you’ve seen in your life)

“this level of reasoning is possible for furudo erika. what do you think everyone?”

she’s just like me pre-therapy for real

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Mello

Definitely a covert narcissist, not grandiose. (Saying this because my propaganda wouldn't make sense otherwise.)

Mello's entire character revolves around the fact that he grew up constantly in second place, being forced to compete with the first-placer (Near) to succeed the detective L, who Mello both idolises and is obsessed with becoming better than, and that the lesser attention drove Mello to extreme insecurity, and the extreme insecurity made Mello self-obsessed. He spends a lot of money (like a LOT LOT, giant leather chair and a full leather wardrobe) on making himself look good and is rather manipulative, seeming to crave constant validation. He hates being alone, for similar reasons. Despite displaying little interest in actual sex, he presents very sexually (fly is ALWAYS unzipped and his hand is often teasing at his belt chill out bro), I assume out of a desire to be desired.

He tends to get disproportionately upset in any situation where he doesn't feel like he's held in high regard (making himself homeless at 14 after L died and it was suggested that Mello work alongside Near, threatening Near with a gun at 20 after he mistook a compliment as backhanded). He's not dramatic all the time (very calm when his hostage is mysteriously killed, very calm when he realises he's going to die), only when he feels underappreciated.

He clearly wants to be perceived as having a huge ego, but he's also constantly demeaning himself. HIS SPECIAL STAT IS “Inferiority Complex”. The Death Note process book says in Japanese (the language it was originally written in) that Mello has an innocent heart, but acts out because he “feels like he needs a lot of attention from the people/person he likes”.

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...hm.

Propaganda

John Doe

Most of John's character arc revolves around discovering his humanity, developing his emotional intelligence and practicing empathy. Without spoiling too much of the story, John goes on a journey of breaking away from his past and choosing who he wants to be. For most of the show, John only sees himself and his equal partner as important. He is desperate for his approval and companionship. He is highly defensive and lashes out physically and verbally at most any provocation. He has no problem manipulating anyone and everyone to get what he wants. In short, John is emotionally volatile, has low empathy, manipulative tendencies, and will do anything to secure his own needs. He is so NPD coded and means the whole entire world to me <3

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Phil Connors

phil is introduced as a total asshole who doesnt give a shit about anyone thats not himself. he actively views those around him as lesser than and mindless and not worthwhile and all he wants to do is wrap up his job for an event he deems pointless and get the hell out. but hes PUNISHED hes forced into NARCISSIST HELL DIMENSION TIME LOOP where he has to CHANGE AND GROW AS A PERSON. and when he does change its not like he completely fundamentally changes as a person and his disordered thinking completely goes away, you can tell he still acts out of self interest, but the difference is hes recognized that helping others doesnt inherently detract from that. groundhog day is essentially the best case example movie for having npd and low empathy and choosing to be a good person anyways, simply because its the right thing to do. and its not easy and you want to kill yourself a lot in the process but its possible. to me phil connors is to npd what abed nadir is to autism. and also the summary of the movie calls him a narcissistic weatherman so #canon?

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Propaganda

Sousuke Aizen

I feel like he’s one of those villains who yearns for immortality and absolute power because they’re insecure and afraid of dying. I haven’t read the entire manga but I did get to the part where he was defeated and subdued. He has most if not all of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and breaks down when he’s challenged and losing despite being calm when he’s in control

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Revali

trained entire life to be a master archer, given much attention and outwardly appears very confident in this

noted to struggle with empathy but is trying his best

super into the idea of being a pilot for a divine beast due to his skills but instantly turned off when told the divine beasts will be support/a sidekick for another knight in charge; it should’ve been ME they should be begging ME to lead the battle against ganon

overworks himself a lot to get to a point where he can actually be satisfied with his progress; very perfectionistic

has a diary as supplemental content because he’s so repressed that a supplemental diary was needed

hinted from game soundtrack and a spinoff cutscene that he attempted to fight windblight ganon after a surprise attack (little preparation for our perfectionist) in the dark (rito have poor night vision) in stormy weather (flying in stormy weather is hard) slashed through the chest (“just a scratch”!) and still had the overconfidence and need to finish it off on his own until he realised just how cooked he was (a little too late)

100 years later, as a spirit, very dead, confidently tells previously mentioned another knight in charge he lost because he was just “winging it”

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Propaganda

Dr. Ivo Robotnik

Okay so I've only really seen the movies, I never got into the games so I can't say if any of this applies to his video game character, but movie Robotnik is sooooooo narcissistic to me. The way he presents himself as superior to literally everyone he comes into contact with? The way he relies so heavily on his genius? The way he believes he's so unlovable he thinks agent Stone is only there to get something out of him, calling him a sycophant, not realizing Stone genuinely loves him until the end of the 3rd movie? Just look at him, that's a narcissist right there

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Cat

Cat is a humanoid evolution of a common house cat. He loves himself more than anything and cares deeply about his appearance. He is more than happy to let everyone around him know that he comes first, and is always ready to heap praises upon himself.

When meeting a genetically engineered life form that takes the form of whatever is the most attractive thing to whoever it is with, it became the mirror image of Cat.

In his despair squid induced hallucination, he is worst nightmare largely consisted of being unattractive and uncool to everyone around him.

I cannot do him justice in this description but he is fantastic.

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Propaganda

Tamako Suoh

Erratic behavior, fear of rejection, overconfidence, superiority complex, inflated ego, etc. he’s got it all and we love him for it

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Leona Kingscholar

His parents (and just about everyone he knew growing up) heavily favored his older brother and would ignore him and/or discredit his ideas and now he's stuck believing that he could be better than everyone if someone just gave him a chance while also believing that there isn't much of a point in trying because he's just gonna get ignored anyway, leading to him having both an inferiority complex and a superiority complex. Also, during the game when he came up with a very elaborate scheme that he and the rest of his dorm were fully confident in it kinda felt like a narc high and then when it all came crashing down and he overblotted it kinda felt like a very dramatized portrayal of a narc crash. And to top it all off, an unfortunate number of people in the fandom who don't really understand his character just think he's an uncaring and aggressive asshole dislike him because of it! Either I'm heavily projecting onto him or he's just The NPD Character ever.

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Propaganda

John Doe

Most of John's character arc revolves around discovering his humanity, developing his emotional intelligence and practicing empathy. Without spoiling too much of the story, John goes on a journey of breaking away from his past and choosing who he wants to be. For most of the show, John only sees himself and his equal partner as important. He is desperate for his approval and companionship. He is highly defensive and lashes out physically and verbally at most any provocation. He has no problem manipulating anyone and everyone to get what he wants. In short, John is emotionally volatile, has low empathy, manipulative tendencies, and will do anything to secure his own needs. He is so NPD coded and means the whole entire world to me <3

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Phil Connors

phil is introduced as a total asshole who doesnt give a shit about anyone thats not himself. he actively views those around him as lesser than and mindless and not worthwhile and all he wants to do is wrap up his job for an event he deems pointless and get the hell out. but hes PUNISHED hes forced into NARCISSIST HELL DIMENSION TIME LOOP where he has to CHANGE AND GROW AS A PERSON. and when he does change its not like he completely fundamentally changes as a person and his disordered thinking completely goes away, you can tell he still acts out of self interest, but the difference is hes recognized that helping others doesnt inherently detract from that. groundhog day is essentially the best case example movie for having npd and low empathy and choosing to be a good person anyways, simply because its the right thing to do. and its not easy and you want to kill yourself a lot in the process but its possible. to me phil connors is to npd what abed nadir is to autism. and also the summary of the movie calls him a narcissistic weatherman so #canon?

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Propaganda

John Doe

Most of John's character arc revolves around discovering his humanity, developing his emotional intelligence and practicing empathy. Without spoiling too much of the story, John goes on a journey of breaking away from his past and choosing who he wants to be. For most of the show, John only sees himself and his equal partner as important. He is desperate for his approval and companionship. He is highly defensive and lashes out physically and verbally at most any provocation. He has no problem manipulating anyone and everyone to get what he wants. In short, John is emotionally volatile, has low empathy, manipulative tendencies, and will do anything to secure his own needs. He is so NPD coded and means the whole entire world to me <3

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Phil Connors

phil is introduced as a total asshole who doesnt give a shit about anyone thats not himself. he actively views those around him as lesser than and mindless and not worthwhile and all he wants to do is wrap up his job for an event he deems pointless and get the hell out. but hes PUNISHED hes forced into NARCISSIST HELL DIMENSION TIME LOOP where he has to CHANGE AND GROW AS A PERSON. and when he does change its not like he completely fundamentally changes as a person and his disordered thinking completely goes away, you can tell he still acts out of self interest, but the difference is hes recognized that helping others doesnt inherently detract from that. groundhog day is essentially the best case example movie for having npd and low empathy and choosing to be a good person anyways, simply because its the right thing to do. and its not easy and you want to kill yourself a lot in the process but its possible. to me phil connors is to npd what abed nadir is to autism. and also the summary of the movie calls him a narcissistic weatherman so #canon?

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Propaganda

The Herta

WHERE DO WE EVEN BEGIN. SHE IS NARCISSISM FR ‼️ For context, she's a member of the in-universe Genius Society, a follower of the God of Knowledge, and a scientific prodigy.

She made a bunch of remote control puppets of herself, and programmed them all with her personality so if she doesn't want to go somewhere she can just send a proxy. She also uses them to complete mundane tasks, so she can focus on her experiments.

A lot of hierarchical thinking, even a canon EP (equal person). She doesn't see anyone as on her level (even her own puppets)- except for Screwllum, a fellow member of the Genius Society, who she directly refers to as her equal. According to her, "He's better than me in logic and finesse. I'm better than him in talent and achievements. We stand toe-to-toe in taste and dress." She's also much more polite with other geniuses and scientists, but she still won't hesitate to be harsh and critical if she thinks they're wrong. She's capable of being kind of civil if someone is interesting. If someone isn't a genius, scientist, or interesting, though, she straight-up won't talk to them.

She shamelessly admires her appearance a lot. Multiple of her animations involve her staring into a mirror/painting of herself, and she notes that the Goddess of Beauty lost a potential follower when Herta decided to follow Knowledge.

Here are some Narc-Coded Herta Quotes tm: "Where am I going to find another genius as mentally well-adjusted as me? In the mirror?" "When writing up a proof, I only use three words: 'obviously,' 'evidently,' and 'naturally' — isn't everything self-evident anyway?" "What could possibly pique your curiosity here? Don't tell me… it's me!" "What's wrong? Never seen perfection up close before?" "Amazing, but then again, it's me we're talking about."

Finally, I'd like to leave you with her character trailer, which I feel speaks for itself: https://youtu.be/u1tkz0Sxa7Q?si=y1tFcxI0RKi9Swru

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Herta entire schtick is based on hyping herself up. Justifiably, because she's one of the smartest people in her universe. But she also uses her smarts to stop herself from aging and create clones of herself that hype her up, which is classic NPD behavior.

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Rouxls Kaard

Rouxls prides himself on being “the duke of puzzles” and presents himself as high and mighty, going so far as to speak in a phony Shakespearean accent which is very likely put on. He loudly proclaims himself as superior, deeming others “worms”. Rouxls’ puzzle-making skills vary but are typically rudimentary, and yet he treats them as grand creations. Still, this confidence isn’t the most solid, as he panics upon being proven wrong, and will flee the scene when able.

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Propaganda

Pyrrhon

ouhghhhh oughhhh ouh ouhh. Ok disclaimer this is a character who's called generically "crazy" by others with no real specifics, the narrative doesn't seem to want to justify or respect him but there's a lot of room for interpretation on what he has going on and if he has good intentions or not, but generally he's a guy who can be very relatable to neurodivergence and mental illness or offensive depending on who you are. Anyways Kid Icarus Uprising is rooted in Greek mythology and parallels the way those gods were originally characterized, often being flawed and self-centered. The selfishness and ego of the gods is brought up a lot, but I think Pyrrhon has a really complex relationship with that. He's bombastic, talks about heroism and justice constantly, and is described as massively egotistical. However, up until a certain point in the story, he seems to be acting selflessly and doesn't really do anything wrong, but the other characters are really vocally critical of him, considering him useless, detrimental, an idiot, and the Sun god according to himself and no one else. I kinda see him as no more egotistical than the other gods and even more selfless than a lot of them, he's just vocal about the things they pretend they're not. They insult him in front of him, vocally and consistently, but he doesn't respond to it. However, he betrays the other characters in the story arc's climax, which many people interpret as a result of pent-up frustration at the other gods making him feel inferior and not having the power for his constant attempts to do good to work. I think the most damning thing is that he's mentioned as only seeing Pit, the main character, as his equal. Pit is also constantly mocked for being a flightless angel who always follows his goddess's orders and doesn't have much independence or free will that he can call his own, and it says a lot about Pyrrhon that he respects this guy more than the gods. It shows he does care about people weaker than the gods, where most of the gods see angels and humans as tools and afterthoughts.

I really think Pyrrhon was trying his best to do good, its just that no one was willing to see him that way because of his perceived exceptional ego, when really it just has a different nature from the one everyone else has, and he's seen as incapable of doing good despite trying to be a hero to others (he doesn't stop the heroic demeanor post-betrayal, which I also think is damning and shows that acting like a hero wasn't just a tool for him). Anyways he did that betrayal and gained power by taking control of a robotic alien hivemind because director Masahiro Sakurai does whatever he wants and eventually Pyrrhon loses control to them and becomes corrupted/possessed/assimilated/Something by them. That loss of control makes me think of ego death both in the "losing sense of self" way and "suddenly plummeting in self image and worth" way, and the way his emotions are restricted to something soulless and robotic in contrast to his previous personality feels really stark and tragic. to me. it's also kinda funny because he's saying his funny catchphrases in monotone now. Him taking away the hivemind after his defeat, his survival being ambiguous, really shows to me that he wanted to do good and be good and help the world, and while everyone else is likeable too I can kinda understand him for putting himself above them considering their selfish wars caused the alien invasion in the first place. Everyone just saw him as worthless, and he couldn't handle it (in my headcanons. unless I'm relaying something that happened in the game this is all just me being autistic about him so we're clear). gawd. pyrrhon kid icarus uprising. also sidenote he's funny as fuck he's like if a ditzy anime girl was 7'4" and he canonically says "oops my bad" and "you're so over" at different points and he's a wiki addict. pyrrhon kid icarus uprising. ALSOOO i don't have npd and was encouraged to submit so I hope none of these were like really bad judgements or anything I just think he in general is ripe for neurodivergent readings and that includes paralleling some of what I know about npd. you might relate to him on some level or want to execute him via firing squad either is fine

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Dimentio

I don't really have the intelligence rn to explain why he's so NPD coded, if this gets posted if anyone could add to this that'd be great!! He's a charming magician that thinks highly of himself and his abilities. He's deceptive and ends up being the big bad of the game, because he wants to create a new universe where he can become king of all worlds.

[npd-characters-tournament]

Propaganda for Mello:

• It wasn't his intention but my boy accidentally got all ~14 of his men and possibly some women killed because he prioritised getting his comfort food over keeping everybody safe. He is very much a risk-taker...

• He's said by the author himself to "be cruel in pursuit of affection".

Poll

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Do you accept new propaganda for characters in the tournament?

Yep!

[npd-characters-tournament]

Propaganda

Miranda Lawson

MASS EFFECT 2 AND 3 SPOILERS! Miranda was quite literally created to be perfect- she was extensively genetically modified by her father to improve her capabilities in every aspect, in an attempt to create a "perfect" legacy. Miranda plays into this reputation- leaning into the appearance of flawlessness and cool apathy. Even when she begins to admit out loud that she might be flawed, she never stops being cold, calculating, and willing to put herself first, and the story doesn't condemn her for this. Her narcissistic traits also lead her to care for those around her- HER sister, HER project, HER commander, HER teammates- allowing them to fail would reflect badly on her too, so she feels as though she HAS to help them succeed. Hell, she even successfully brings someone back from the dead because she's the ONLY one who genuinely believed it could be done- because she's Miranda, and she doesn't fail. (On a sillier note, if you don't give her attention at the right times in game 3 she fuckign DIES and. Like. Bitch me too.) At the end of the day, she's a human who wasn't raised to be human, but a legacy, and she deals with it rather well considering the circumstances. Miranda Lawson Masseffect you will always be famous 💜

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Kokomi Teruhashi

Known for being 'the perfect pretty girl' as she deems herself just about every episode. Everyone canonically adores her as she is noted as 'God's favourite', though she constantly has an inner battle with herself about appearances. This means that whenever a character does not give her the reaction she expects, does not notice her, etc. she starts to inwardly panic and attempt to fix the situation. And even when everything is going right, she often worries about how she is perceived. The main character, Saiki, is one of the very few characters who does not give her the attention nor reactions she expects which causes a particular obsession with him in attempt to win him over. Most inner dialogue can we generalized as either security and confidence in herself and how she presents, or panic and a frantic train of thoughts working to mend anything she may deem bad for her

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Propaganda

Princess Bubblegum

Everything she does seems to stem from her confidence in herself along with insecurity about what she’s not in control over like spying on everyone in the world as a means to protect her kingdom and overstepping her bounds like it’s no big deal. She does mixed up to change this after being called a bad person, though

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Bruce Wayne

This character helped me come to terms with my NPD so I'm very biased BUT I think this is a valid reading of the character! Bruce was raised by his butler, someone who works for him, surrounded by praise and adoration by people he doesn't respect (Gotham's elite), there's no WAY he doesn't see himself as above most people. He puts specific people on a pedestal to look up to (Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, his parents) and his opinion of people flips on a dime when they aren't agreeing with him (Selena Kyle, Superman). He has an incredibly hard time forming and maintaining relationships with people as an equal. There is always an imbalance in his mind. Dishing out vigilante justice and seeing himself as the only thing holding Gotham city together is a huge delusion of grandeur, one he holds onto and bases his reality around. His sense of self and purpose is entirely tied to these ideas and this city and everything that challenges that reality is automatically the evil he needs to fight against.

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Propaganda

Tatewaki Kuno

He believes every girl he’s interested in wants him despite how many times they reject him and excellent incredibly bizarre ways in order to get what he wants. He’s definitely entitled and has a grandiose sense of self and superiority

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NPD posterchild, bro has every symptom on the checklist, AND a hero of the story who loves his family and has whimsy you would not believe! really great rep

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He often focuses on his own issues, ignoring other people's even when their solutions are more relevant or efficient, and he frequently pictures himself as a hero in his journal or in flashbacks even when it's not the full truth.

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Propaganda

Millions Knives

I feel like he has NPD because he’s definitely very narcissistic and sees his brother as an extension of himself rather than his own person and seems to have an insecurity related to it. Also he has the symptoms like huge sense of importance, fantasies about what he believes he deserves, belief in superiority, I wouldn’t say he has a desire to be worshiped except maybe by his brother lol. He has a willingness to exploit others and he’s entitled which are also symptoms of NPD. He also gaslight him into believing it’s his fault that knives is ‘dying’ to make him feel bad about not wanting to exterminate humans with him

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Zapp Renfro

He has many of the symptoms that overcloud his good nature which puts him in the jerk with a heart of gold trope. But he does have overconfidence, a lack of empathy, refusal to accept faults when he’s not being scolded by his bosses, erratic behavior and impulsiveness etc. And he lies to everyone about being kidnapped so that he can make his boss fight for him so he can pay off a debt lol