#badger model

[mysticalenthusiastvoid]

I'm going to sort my family from most recently dead to furthest.

Grandma - Badger Snake. I thought maybe she was a double Badger, but I think she modeled Badger sec because it was expected of her, but she was traditional and involved in her church community, so Badger primary. I say she was a Snake secondary due to her general mischeviousness, go with the flow attitude, and doing things like once tricking me into getting a flu shot by paying for two.

Mom - Double Bird or Bird Badger. Would do a deep dive on any subject she found interesting and once she decided that something was true, good luck changing her mind. She could possibly have been a Badger sec due to building communities wherever she went. Used to clash with her a fair amount, but she also could have been a burnt Lion primary.

Grandpa - This one is the hardest due to him being gone for so long, but he could be the double Badger out of the bunch. Also community oriented.

[allegro-designs]

BEHOLD. A good boy deathclaw.

When discussing OCs as Fallout characters, @plinzer and I landed on my good good dragonborn, Badger, being a stand-in for Goris the intelligent deathclaw. Granted this one more has the personality of a California surfer bro, but he deserves to be a big ol dinosaur in any setting that allows him to be one.

Featuring his Totally Just A Supermutant disguise too

[gingersn4pp]

A lil speculative biology for an assignment, ft one of my favorite pokeys.

[mrburnsnuclearpussy]

Mr Carson and his likeness 🦡

[wisteria-lodge]

bird primary + slightly burnt snake secondary (bird model) (burnt-out badger model)

I don't know if this is the correct place to ask this, oh well :). I recently found the SHC community and fell in love with your analysis. (Disclaimer that I may have misinterpreted some of the traits, again, very new at this.)

I am hoping you can help me sort out my secondary. My primary is very obviously a bird, no problem. I mean, I exibit certain chararistics of the others at certain times, such as strongly valuing personal loyalty and such, but I think complexity is just part of being a human and I fit really neatly into almost all of the bird stuff I've read.

and I mean... "strongly valuing personal loyalty" can just, very easily, be something that you fold into your Bird System.

But my secondary is really giving me trouble. But I keep flipping between snake with badger model or burnt badger with snake model. (With others thrown in for flavor!)

For context, I was raised in VERY emphasized badger home. And like, mostly, I agree? Hard work, grit, and consistency ARE extremely important, and while those are not the only way to ever accomplish things, they tend to be the most reliable and the most likely to give long term success. They also tend to build long lasting relationships that are supportive and grow with you over time and not just around one time/phase/stage in life. (Not that those aren't important) I want to be like that- be the reliable hard-working one. But I'm not! I am fairly lazy actually, and am constantly searching for a way around projects/problems, very often to my own detriment.

So okay. We've got some negative self-talk here.

I don't like the word "lazy" - mostly because it's just incredibly non-specific. "Lazy" can mean issues with executive functioning, it can mean I don't think xyz is important, so of course I'll cut corners. It can mean you're exhausted. It can mean you're depressed. It can mean 'if I am not working literally all the time, I'm worthless.' It can mean you're having a fun, goof-off day. See what I mean?

So what this does tell me is 1) You've got a strong Badger secondary voice in your ear, saying that This Is How It Has To Be and 2) that kind of chafes. You're about working around things, working smarter not harder, and getting out of/finishing quickly the things you don't want to do. Which is 100% completely fine! All it means is that you're probably not a Badger secondary!

And while I am very good at lying and do it to get myself out of problems semi-regularly, I feel guilty about it after (not usually in the moment) becuase of my moral system (bird primary).

I'm leaning slightly-burnt Snake here. Healthy Snakes don't usually refer to their shape-changing as "lying," so I'm keeping that in mind.

But being so snake/adaptable does have many benefits, especially in talking/working with others, and I value my ability to change to fit each person or situation. I am also often able to find unique solutions to the problems I caused myself by not doing it "right" the first time.

Definitely sounds like an improvisational secondary, and changing for the person (as opposed to changing for the situation) is very Snake.

My father has a job in the local public eye and I grew up learning how to be able to talk to anyone, act interested in anything, and have a different mask for school, vs public, vs with friends, vs just being me at home.

Sounds like you built an Actor Bird secondary model (and some of that is of course you going into Neutral.

And sometimes I feel guilty for "manipulating" people, as my moral system emphasis honesty, but just as often I pride myself on making people feel good becuase I figured out what they needed/wanted and gave it to them while making it seem like it wasn't a calculated read of the situation.

Snake. And a fairly important part of this system is that "manipulating" is a completely neutral problem-solving technique. You can manipulate people to do good, and manipulate people to do bad, just the same as you can use the Badger dependability and ability to fly under the radar to do good things, and bad things.

Overall, I am grateful for my childhood (truly I've got great parents) and I think it's super important to be able to react well to unexpected circumstances, so much so that when I finish college this spring (we'll get to that in a second) I want to go into disaster response and crisis management to help others deal with unforseen circumstances. I've worked as an EMT, and hopefully soon as a 911 dispatcher before going into formal disaster response.

I think that will suit you perfectly and (as I'm sure you probably know) that's something a Badger secondary would not be nearly as good at.

I'm very comfortable using snake methods and it makes me feel clever when I come up with an unexpected solution or pull off a tricky social maneuver-

This is a big sign this is your secondary - using it makes you feel powerful.

I just feel guilty because they hard-core fail me when it comes to big tasks I simply don't want to do- situations where the only solution is to just get it done the hard way, and trust me, I would have looked for any other options.

Yeah, that's issues with executive functioning surrounding non-preferred tasks.

I see this most often in my schoolwork. I'm a double-major senior and I am definitely burnt out from school.

Don't blame you. Sounds like you bootstrapped your way through on the family Badger secondary model, and now you're sick of using it.

I am a "gifted child," and I have always done very well in school. I've never had to work very hard at any subject, and so I never did. I always procrastinated and slid in 2 minutes before a deadline.

Very, very common story. You're using adrenaline to hack your brain to punch through executive functioning issues, we've all done it, we know it's not sustainable. Same with not having to work hard in school - you're brain's going fast, you're making connections, you're using meta-knowledge (you're using your secondary.)

The difference is that in college I started not caring about deadlines, being very late or not turning something in entirely. I got A's and F's, no in between. I am graduating, mostly due to amazing professors.

You were burnt out. This is what burnout sounds like. But you made it through, and honestly people just care if you graduated, or not.

There have been things in my life that I've worked really hard at, such as becoming an emt while in high school or my internship last summer, and I have felt really proud of that. But I don't enjoy the work for its own sake, and there have been just as many things I've cared about that I let be mediocre at best becuase I didn't want to put in the effort.

And that's fine! There are some things you care about (and you're incredibly accomplished) and there are some things you don't, and what's the problem with that?

And, some of the best feedback I recieved from that internship was that I always was working hard- and seemed positive about it. When I told them I have to "work hard to work hard" they were shocked and I felt very happy. For 2 reasons: 1, becuase I did actually put in a lot of work to work hard and it showed me that I can when I truly want to (I was starting to doubt), and 2, that they perceived me like that.

I'm guessing it also felt good because there's a large part of you that sees Badger as "the good one."

There's a slightly annoying thing about being human, that gets into the sunk-cost fallacy and things like that, that things we put a lot of effort into are inherently better, or more valuable. But it's just not true. Often the thing that's so easy it doesn't feel like work, the story or painting that just came together, *is better* than the one you slaved and sweat and bled over.

Also, I've been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, probably stemming back from before high school (it's strongly in family history, inevitable more than circumstancial), so how much of that overshadows my personality?

I mean, I think your personality comes through loud and clear. Just stop describing yourself as "lazy" okay?

To make things more complicated I love learning and picking up random bits of information, and I love trying new things. My nickname was Wikipedia in high school becuase I could always be relied upon to have some cursory knowledge about anything, though not always the helpful knowledge. (Bird vibes) I do that for the fun of it though, and it doesn't tend to be the basis of how I make decisions or react to situations.

We know you built a Bird model, so it's good that you can use it as a toy.

So what is going on here? Am I a burnt out badger who needs to not be in the school system for a while to reset and be able to dedicate myself to the things I love, and who uses snake mechanisms to cover my weak spots becuase I got good at that in childhood

You can burn out models. It's pretty common, and it's the puzzle piece you're missing here. You are a Snake. You model Badger when you have to. But because it IS hard, use it too much and it burns out and starts to hurt to use.

At which point you fall back on your Snake secondary and Actor Bird model. Don't worry. You made it through the tough times, and your new situation seems much better suited to your Snake.

Or am I a snake who strongly values badger traits but needs to figure out how to blend them? (And how do I do that?) And also go back to therapy? What's bird doing in there, anyway? I think I'm leaning option two, but like I said- I'm very flip-floppy about the whole thing.

Thank you so much- sorry it got so long. (Imagine if I were confused about my primary too!)

Hey, therapy is fantastic, but it sounds to me like you're doing pretty okay. :)

thanks @adisgracetotheforcesofevil for the submission

[rickybaby]

dr3wines: For the one who has it all … keep them cosy in a lux DR3 robe

Shop now for Father’s Day delivery!

[iorekbyrinson]

Sorting Better Call Saul: part 2

I promised this post...like, a year ago, so I'm posting these three I've got some kinda idea about now as a peace offering. Not the full cartel yet, but watch this space!

Mike Ehrmantraut - Lion Badger, Burnt primary, Bird model

Ok, to start with Mike. Mike has the traits of all four houses - the hard work and honesty of a Hufflepuff, the loyalty of a Slytherin, the intelligence of a Ravenclaw, and even the fierceness of a Gryffindor when roused. Let's start with Hufflepuff, which is the first - Mike has a Puff streak a mile wide, valuing honesty, hard work, and fairness to an insane degree.

You could argue that this could be the iron clad code of a Ravenclaw, but I think that's a myth. Mike has put on the icy and unfeeling armour around his Puffness to match the "code" of the gangland warfare he finds himself in, but it's got too much of a warm Puff heart to be truly Ravenclaw. Scratch it and you find the gruff older mentor who takes Jesse under his wing, the one whose arguments of "in or out the game" are essentially ways of stopping himself feeling for those who he is forced to kill, and despite all that is the character most likely to stand in harms way to protect another who he can't bear to see harmed - Nacho, then Nachos father, then Jesse, even Werner.

In both series, this devotion specifically revolves around his love for his granddaughter. It's all for Kaylee, for him to find a foothold in his granddaughter's life, and provide for her future. In simple terms, this seems like a Slytherin way of categorising his world - caring, in a structured form, with blood prioritized first - or is it? The Slytherin loyalty rears it's head, but I actually think Mike is working off the terms of paying a debt - that he "broke his boy" by morally corrupting him, making him take a taste of the corruption he'd dipped his hand in for pragmatic reasons for decades, which led to his death. Now that's a vessel you can never really fill again.

This cool headed-ness and Mike's legendary problem solving skills could indicate Ravenclaw, but I'm disinclined to consider it for either primary or secondary. Mike simply doesn't work along the same terms as Gus or Chuck. He's a deeply felt man that's found a way to operate in the world using higher means of practical tools and skills. But Mike TOILS. He doesn't form master plans or collect people to suit specific purposes, and out of the whole cast he's the most likely not to socially engineer a situation (well, aside from a bit of acting now and then), turning his nose up at Gustavo's double life and scripts. Every single plan he has works on the basis that he can deconstruct it down to its bare essentials (see: the infamous car scene). He's patient, like stone under deep earth. You try and move against him and he is utterly firm. In this way, I'm going to anoint him a beautiful Puff secondary with 0 interest in mirroring or people pleasing.

So what's his Primary? Well firstly, Mikes primary is deeply charred. It's the tragedy of his character - a man so capable, so intelligent and functioning in the world, yet his heart is utterly dried up. There's no gas left in that particular tank, by both circumstance and design - if Mike allowed himself to feel, he would annihilate himself in disgust for what he sees as his transgressions (JBanks discusses this). So, a moral, felt Primary. I'm gonna say he's not a double Puff. Mike shows little interest in belonging to groups and in fact thrives as the archetypal lone wolf, like a gunslinger with a broken code. He's dead to himself and yet deeply aroused by things pertaining to his own individual morality - like Hector massacring the Good Samaritan, or Gus paying off Werner's wife. Mike, Burnt or not, operates from a sense of judgement about how the world should be, and deigns his own judgement frequently. One of the tragedies of the show is witnessing this drying up - going from trusting his gut instinct of right and wrong to becoming an accomplice to Gus having given up on his sense of morality entirely. So, Gryff primary, making Mike Ehrmantraut perhaps the most unlikely Lion Badger in the whole compendium.

Lalo Salamanca - *RETYPED (prev Bird Snake) Lion Snake, Burnt Badger secondary model

*see below post for new Primary reasoning

(((Now, Lalo. Definitely NOT an internal primary - I see external primary AND external model for this guy. He strikes me as a Bird Snake actually, and the reason I don't build his sorting the way I did with Mike is because Lalo is best taken from the outside in - it forms a more complete picture of him (because there's nothing going on inside).

First, getting rid of that typical Slytherin primary. To do this, we need to look at where his main trait, commitment to his family, comes from. For Snake primaries, this loyalty is innate and instinctive. However, when we see Lalo acting out of instinct, it is almost certainly for survival - or *fun*. This guy is going around setting a charge to situations that majorly eff things up for HIM AND HIS FAMILY because he gets bored. He never shuts up, constantly on one tangent or another. Now, that's not to say Snakes can't be chatty (especially Snake secondaries), but Lalo's constant stream of consciousness seems to have a function. It is a pure externalisation of his interior monologue, a way of understanding and implementing his ideas and actions. Snakes need to reserve a portion of themselves for themselves in order to survive. Lalo, arguably, shares too much, flying well in the face of a TRUE loyalist manipulator (which is also why Gustavo gets so pissed with him, because...he's a real, true blue almighty Snake and he CANNOT understand or even tolerate the faux Loyalty the Salamanca family wears like a badge of honour. After all, he "understands blood for blood").

Secondly, he's got that Bird Snake vibe of being a manipulator that is just weird enough to get everybody's hackles up whilst staying (almost) one move ahead of everybody else. Also, when you leave him alone (and let his walls come down a bit), he starts theorising - random theories about Gustavo, and when he's by the fireplace with Nacho, little nuggets of not being able to sleep at night. It's a funny scene, one a lot of the fandom interpreted in a VERY Snake way as a sign some kind of loyalty was being exchanged/revealed, but in honesty it's kind of both trite and sad. Lalo trusted Nacho enough to reveal one of the twisty sides to his character, the intellectual grain in a personality entirely constructed to fit the macho conventions of the cartel.)))

Lalo has a very, very dark Badger model, which he uses as an in to his messed-up family, and also to smooth cartel relations (which, ironically, causes an oil/water reaction amongst folks, because Lalo isn't precious about his Badger model and his real self tends to bleed through - Lalo simultaneously gives the impression he's including you AND excluding those he doesn't like, in one smooth swoop. It's very unsettling for ACTUAL regular Badger Juan Bolsa, who far prefers Gustavo's very specific brand of Snake packaged in servile Double Badger. It's easier for him to understand.) It's a social convention that greases the wheels in the cartel families/businesses, which are hierarchical, you're-with-us-or-against-us places. Gus also does this, but he does it a lot less graciously than Lalo, because he hates everyone and gets nothing from it. Lalo enjoys the way it relates him to others - such as with his staff, or his family, or Eladio -, and he coaches Nacho in these methods later in order to get him into Eladio's good graces.

This is just speculation, but I have an instinct it was also a way of packaging the brutal dehumanisation and pack-loyalty the Salamanca family in particular seem to enjoy. Hector has compelled his whole family into a cult of following the family credo (family is everything) as a means of centralising his power and bolstering his hair-trigger ego. The younger Salamanca generation are all lessons in how individuals respond to that kind of pressure - Tuco, perhaps the most like his uncle (Hector would love to think Lalo takes most after him, but that's untrue) goes all in on his own Lion secondary, the twins become shallow facsimiles of Badger secondaries with their own Sortings buried perhaps so far they will never be found (and always be within reach of their best securities, each other) and Lalo, perhaps the cleverest of all the Salamanca progeny, learns to model or even perform a Badger primary in order to SEEM like he's fully in step with the structures around him whilst following his own path.

Actually, I'm certain it's a Badger performance more than a model, one he seems to knowingly laugh at (such as when he sees Gustavo doing the same thing and sees RIGHT through it, such as when he goes to Germany to see Marguerite and Casper and keeps up his performance of "American Tourist Abroad" for approximately twenty seconds. It's not Marguerite's fault she was a trusting Lion primary and didn't bother to probe. Marguerite was tryna get some.) This veneer of bonhomie totally falls away by the end though. As he says to Hector - "screw Bolsa, screw Eladio, I'm getting revenge and I'm gonna cause this guy some pain".

SPEAKING OF: Lalo's primary is Lion. I previously said Bird because I couldn't get a read on his fae-lord view of morality, but once I twigged that's a Lion trope, it all fell into place. Lalo and Hector share a Primary, and you can absolutely see how Lalo's character is shaped by looking at his uncle (as I've said above). And although I said previously that Hector is probably a Double Lion, I think the magnitude of how Exploded Hector is gets in the way of what his secondary is. I think Hector may just be an awful Badger secondary, one that shows up as functional when he tries bargaining with Mike in the guise of senior citizen, for instance, or tries to pay off Nacho's father. The wince-inducing efforts to suck up to Eladio, also, show an adherence to the old ways that just aren't current with Gustavo's slicker, profit-oriented over person-oriented methods. It's heavy-handed and doesn't work either way, but it doesn't stop it from being a Badger method. It's the Lion primary that runs the Salamanca family, and Lalo has taken his own fae-lord, it is what it is stance on this, sustained by the fire that keeps their family at the top of the heap, Ambition, Glory, and all those other darkGryffindor vibes.

Also I think it's interesting that Hector, for all Lalo's doting nephew persona, doesn't end up being taken care of by him at his hacienda. Lalo chooses to plant himself as far from the Salamanca proceedings north of the border as possible, with even a restrained, utilitarian villa with an entourage of unrelated staff and a few of the peasantry that adore him as a Don in his own right. I think this is a little indicator of some Glory Hound Lion being in there (which means Lalo sees himself as a hero, which...tracks), as well as a further proof that Lalo doesn't have a Slytherin primary - I don't see a Snake VOLUNTARILY ever wanting to have distance between them and their innermost circle.

Which brings us to what underpins Lalo's personality; his truly incredible Snake secondary. This guy adores being in neutral. He likes to switch in and out and watch those around him squirm in discomfort. At his core he doesn't seem to give a cheery sh*t about any kind of social niceties and performances and seems to use any socializations outside of cartel business to out and out psychologically mess with people. As for the rest - literally look at any ten second clip of the guy. Dude is revealing secret bathtub tunnels and diving in and out of vents like he was born for it. And he has a truly terrifying Neutral face, when necessary - as seen with Kim's conversation with him in the prison. Brrrr.

So, Lalo - Lion Snake, with a Badger secondary performance, and an arc in the later seasons that makes him full-on Exploded and out for vengeance.

Gustavo Fring - Double Snake (exploded secondary), Bird Secondary model, Double Badger performance

So I watched Better Call Saul first before seeing Gus in BB...which is tricky, because so much of Gus's character is designed in BCS as a nod to BB, as a piece that provides more context to the BB Gus, aka drug lord supreme. In BCS, we see Gus in an awkward in between stage, like a bug in a chrysalis. He's still working at the restaurant but he's still not far along in his relationships as we see them with Bolsa, Eladio and especially Mike, and Hector isn't in the chair. The reason why I mention this is I think it's interesting - even telling - that one can plot Gus's evolutions as a character across his major relationships. So I'm saying off the bat Loyalist.

Now which Loyalist? Snake all the way down, like the centre of a stick of rock. Outside the stick of rock, Gus is wrapped in a number of Primary models. First is Badger, part of his all-in-one benevolent restaurant manager/member of the community Double Badger package. Gus wears his immigrant status like a gentle bandage, making others sensitive to the elusiveness he has built into his past (unknowable to even the viewer except in hints and stories).

What powers this construction? Why, an empire-building Bird secondary. Gustavo, down to the coldest, most insignificant detail, has his scheme. He has the players, the equipment, the personas, the schedules set up. Everything is waiting in the wings to enter. So why am I still talking about the stick of rock and primaries? Because, gentle reader, I am going to posit a theory - there is a Double Snake lurking in there too.

Now, to understand this, we have to look at the "Generalissimo" and his past and current actions as they occur in BB/BCS. We know his closest friend and partner Max was murdered. We know he came from Chile hot off the Pinochet regime and with dubious German connections that could interrelate with other, murky origins. We know even his closest allies do not know him. And there are those possibilities that are thrown in there, like ingredients floating through a soup - the toys at his house, the mention of a family, the slide from his personable boss and cook to blank-eyed drug lord.

So to support what I feel is the core of Gus's character, I am going to excise David the wine guy from Gus's narrative. Shocking! But you see why - I don't think Gilligould actually chained this together with the other parts of this unknowable cipher they had constructed together. David is supposed to show the beating heart at the centre of the Snake primary, and a kind of courtly old fussiness to Gustavo's secondary that heavily hints at Bird, under all the models.

However, I think this is an over-simplification of a character that has always dealt in a kind of complexity. Compare Gustavo with Snake Bird Tywin Lannister and Double Snake Petyr Baelish. Tywin is utterly above board (not...morally, but in terms of his movements). Even his subterfuge and planning come from a completely cool place that has the contingencies and players lined up. So seemingly Gustavo.

But look at Petyr, and you really see parts of Gustavo's character take shape. An unknown man coming from obscure origins, with a tragic love written into his texture to give him grounding for his visions, and an ever evolving, ever looping pattern of Snake secondary that keeps his character one step away from being coherent to those around him, even the audience. Take that attribute up to ten, and you get Gustavo - his remove, his iciness, his resolve, his consummate Bird Secondary model, keeps the viewer from being able to understand the root of his analysis, how he puts together the main blocks that make him who he is.

And the thing is, he doesn't experience any dissonance over it - except where the writers, in my opinion, become heavy handed. Giancarlo has described how he uses yoga techniques to slow his movements and breath and facial actions down in order to reach the level Gustavo operates at, and I think this can be a useful key in SHC also. I think by the time BCS's final seasons roll round, Gustavo doesn't even know he's a Snake secondary.

Before when it worked in tandem with his Snake primary, obstacles began to occur - he noticed superiors such as those in Chile responded negatively to it, so he constructed a Bird Secondary to work as a utility model whilst being a slippery, hard-to-know creature at his core. It was not strong enough to withstand the brutal immediate action of the cartel, and in that moment Gus fled into his Bird secondary, as a creature tied down by not being able to adapt or change away from a terrible loss, and formed ANOTHER secondary performance, his handy dandy Double Badger, in order to fool his contemporaries, plan, and execute. But Gus's true character - his Double Snake - is long gone. He has buried it so deep that only smoke signals come up every now and then to show it's still there. And that is the tragedy of Gustavo Fring - a man lost even to himself.

I don't know how far SHC goes to support this analysis and honesty a lot of it is such speculation and canon-divergent I don't know how much weight it will hold, but this is as good an analysis I could put together for Gus, so, with a deep breath:

Gus - Double Snake with an Exploded (and buried) secondary, a Bird Secondary model, and a Double Badger performance.

Note: this is what makes Gus's fear of Lalo hilarious and kind of frustrating from a writing perspective - we can never reconcile the ever adaptable and prepared Gus of BB with the one crippled by fear in BCS, by actions he would see as child's play in the original canon. It's supposed to create more material and energy between him and the Lalo character, and I don't actually think it's successful - I think it was an impulse to "humanise"that actually took the character out of his own canon. Which just goes to show, when you're writing a Snake secondary at the heart of a dozen models interacting with ANOTHER Snake secondary at the heart of a dozen models, even the fleetest of writers are going to hit a roadblock. It just ain't the kind of psychology you get anywhere but with a Snake sec, God love em.

[sniffanimal]

wake up a new pointless gender categorization just dropped

[dailyedgeworth]

okay what kind of shoes and gloves would the blue badger have? or any of the badgers?

[blue-thief]

people are so weird about filipinos

[mysticalenthusiastvoid]

I'm either in Badger mode or in neutral. Sometimes it seems like there's no middle ground.

[polygondotcomvideoproducer]

Being a bloke who does fuck all is a hereditary curse that results in being very difficult to buy birthday presents for

[mooglesorts]

i have not been active on this blog in a While and being very normal about my old hyperfixation lorien legacies, which has an absolute fuckload of characters to sort, has finally gotten me to crawl out of my hole.

[spoilers ahead for both lorien legacies and its sequel series!]

there is a LOT of ground to cover here, and i am mostly going to limit myself to sorting characters and themes from the first series, but my initial notes are:

probably one of the biggest overarching themes of the series is toxic birdsec, and the harm it can do to every aspect of a society or a person's life--on both a systematic level and an individual one--right down to their basic humanity. by extension it also goes into similarly fucked up lion and bird primary used as weapons and tools of abuse, and how they interplay with each other.

a large part of this stems from setrákus ra being The Worst Fucking Lion Bird Ever to Live, lmao. he's an interesting example of birdsec interplaying with cannibal badger, and also of a lion bird who's a cheetah in that he uses systems as tools to manipulate people instead of actually believing them. he hands out toxic systems like candy while peppering them with outright lies, and blithely admits that even the one that he's put centuries into building--mogadorian progress, and the great book--is at its heart just a ruse to run his cult on. the truth he pretends to worship and champion isn't external, objective truth--it's an extension of him. he is the ultimate truth. and the only truth he believes in is his cause, which is that he has the right and ability to own, make use of, and do whatever he sees fit with everything in existence. everyone and everything that could possibly be a shiny or a tool belongs to him.

one of the other overarching themes is toxic badger primary and secondary--cannibal badgering AHOY--as well as toxic lion primary, and it is a great deal less intentional than the bird cautionary tale part lmao

five is a bird snake with deeply toxic lion primary and bird secondary models, one of which he picked up after getting involved with a cult, and one of which he's had since his abusive birdsec guardian started amputating his masks by trying to apply actor bird to them. :') his brand of birdsplode and snakeburn make him horribly, horribly vulnerable to the cult, especially combined with focused, one-on-one gaslighting and manipulation from setrákus himself, and he has to burn his bird right to a crisp to break away from it. i am very biased and i have so much to say about my boy, but i plan to go in depth about this later

there are a LOT of lionsecs among the loric garde kids. the only surviving ones who aren't lionsecs are marina's badger and five's snake (the latter of which is heavily villainized, lol); number one is either a lionsec or a snakesec, maggie is either a birdsec or a badgersec, and we don't really see enough of hannu to be sure, but my guess is badgersec. in context, whatever these books are saying here i am not sure i like it lmao

this stands in contrast to the non-garde allies, minus adam, who end up being Part of the Gang. sam and lexa are birdsecs, and sarah and malcolm are both badgersecs.

speaking of adam, he is a lion snake with a cool, calculated double bird performance/model, who has been waiting all his life for a chance to go Absolutely Feral. there are a lot of ways in which he's a real shithead, which track given his life and circumstances up to then but are also real 😬 sometimes, but like, good for him. go ape shitt, kid

nine is an awful, AWFUL double lion who models/performs the worst parts of badger primary; he also uses lionsec stereotypes and methods to misdirect people, so that he can hurt, gaslight, prey on, and abuse them. it's genuinely interesting how he does it, and i could go on for a long time about it, but it's also Infuriating because the authors really want you to love him for being a ~charming jerk with a heart of gold,~ so that is for another post. in the sequel series he also picks up a nasty posthumous birdsec model from sandor to gleefully torture children with so lmfao

there seem to be a lot of birdsecs and badgersecs among the mentor cêpans, which tracks, because, well, mentors. interestingly, it seems to be a pattern so far that the birdsec mentors are either some of the most deeply abusive among them (see: rey, sandor, and ethan even though he's an unofficial cêpan), or the most decent parents of them under the circumstances (see: katarina).

john is a hognose (badgery snake) 'i live here' snake lion, and a VERY loud one. he's set on saving the world mainly a) in order to save his People, or b) because it's what they would want. he also believes STRONGLY in snake values as applied to other people, and absolutely cannot grok that anyone would feel differently--he holds back on killing a major enemy because he's worried about killing a friendly acquaintance's Person--and honestly he can be kind of a huge dick about it lmao. he burns HARD at the end of the first series when sarah dies; in the second, he copes by making an entire community into his circle and no longer gives a shit about the rest of the world outside it, including groups who are in similar if not worse circumstances than his community. Horrific War Crimes Ensue!

rex is an everyone double badger and i love him so much. i love him So Much. he is a wonderful example of how to write a morally dubious character whose dodgy qualities interest me instead of making me grit my teeth and Tolerate Them. his arc could have fixed So Much of the Ending's Bullshit and i will be forever mad that they dumped it in the trash

there is more, oh my god there's so much more, this series has SO many characters in it, but this is a start thank you for coming to my ted talk

[ten-of-imps]

I pretend to be a double Badger at work. I like it. I get to be nice and kind, and avoid conflicts and appear hard working and responsible. I bet there are people who know that something is up, who can smell bs, but why would they investigate?

I'm not responsible, I'm just working and trying to do my job and not leave crumbs all over my place for problems to arise. But I'm nowhere near the double Badger people perceive me as.

I think one person maybe sees me as a bird primary, and the other might suspect there's a snake under my badger models. But they're a snake, and I think that's a good way to be liked by them. They heard me once talking with my family, I bet they heard a completely different person.

Some don't care if what I present is actually me, they accept the models and what flashes underneath it.

But the most interesting thing is, as I don't need to worry and be in a survival mode that much, shifting and changing, turning the volume down is a lovely way to spend my day. I can adapt according to how I want it and see it, I don't need to adapt out of fear that much.

For some time I thought I was a badger, and I started to unburn in a new community, but am I, really?

[mrburnsnuclearpussy]

I freed him from his tea tin prison to take some photos outside

[wisteria-lodge]

un-Burnt lion primary (snake model) + bird secondary

I feel like I've unburned and maybe got/dropped a new model or two and I would love to hear your opinion! I have a theory that either my primary or secondary (or a model?) is very loud and it’s confusing me.

Let's sort you out :D

I like debates and I love poking holes in other people’s logic (and my own as well). And I love playing the devil’s advocate, it’s one of my favourite pastimes, I sometimes argue against a point I actually agree with just because I can

I used to do this all the time. I was a menace in Sunday school. It's a very Bird secondary thing to do for sure... but the way you're describing it makes it sound a little like a toy. It's totally possibly you've got a beloved Bird secondary model here.

especially when somebody’s being very close-minded and self-righteous which drives me up the wall.

This little bit is making me lean Idealist primary. Like there's nothing so annoying as someone who hasn't considered it properly... but acts like they have.

Mind you, it’s usually with people who know me well and if it isn’t, I’d probably make it clear that I agree with the sentiment, just not the reasoning. Or that I’m just trying to see things from another perspective. Or I wouldn’t make it clear at all and watch the chaos unfold just for the hell of it (mind you, I wouldn’t do this if the topic was something important to me or if I had even the slightest interest of ever becoming friendly with this person).

You enjoy playing intellectual games with people you know or respect... and sometimes you also like to troll. Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes.

I never judge people based solely on what they believe in and I have a very low opinion of people who do. I think abortion is a basic right every woman should have but I can also think of several valid reasons why a person might be against it. You can’t infer who somebody is or what they believe in based on a single belief. I see people as people not as belief systems and I sure as hell don’t think of them in terms of good and evil.

Well, I would hope so. That's the entire premise of this entire system. That's why we're all here.

I'm interested in the two sentiments "somebody... being very close-minded and self-righteous... drives me up the wall." and "I never judge people based solely on what they believe in." Like maybe I'm being too much of a Lion here, but that definitely seems a judgement passed on people because of their beliefs. Or is it more how the beliefs are *presented* that annoys you? How they're *arrived* at?

That's my current working theory, and it's a very Bird primary worldview. 'Believe what you want, just be able to back it up, or I can't respect you.' 'Have "valid reasons" for thinking what you think.'

There is some Loyalist language here, though. "I see people not as belief systems" etc. So I'm keeping an eye on that.

We’re all only human and anybody who thinks you can be purely one or the other is being too idealistic for my taste and unable see the full picture.

Healthy Idealists don't think that. Thinking that people come only in the flavors "good" and "evil" is a very Exploded thing, and you get it with Exploded Birds, Exploded Lions, and Exploded Badgers as well. (It can also be a sign of an Immature Badger or Immature Bird. It's not a particularly sustainable, or healthy thing to think, is my point.)

However... it does sound like you've got someone in your life who relies on those talking points.

I value friendships above all else. Gaining my trust takes time but once you do, I’m extremely loyal. It takes a lot for me to end a friendship, if anything I’m too understanding and patient.

Hmm. Again with the Loyalist language. You like Loyalists, that's for sure. And I'm starting to think you want me to tell you that you're a Loyalist.

One thing I would never tolerate is people ignoring my boundaries. If a friend teases me about something that’s a sore spot once, that’s a mistake, I tell them not to do it again and forget it ever happened. If they ignore me and keep doing it or they start prying and demanding explanations why it’s a sore spot instead of just accepting it, that’s the end of the friendship and, as far as they’re concerned, I’m going to disappear off the face of the earth never to be heard from again.

So really, you value freedom and boundaries above all else. That's classically a Lion primary thing. This idea that safety exists in the ability to go off and do your own thing... and if you're doing your own thing alone that is /fine/

It's possible you're fiercely guarding your boundaries NOW after having been "too understanding and patient" in the past. Maybe you have (or used to have) Badger in your system. But for now, I'm reading Lion. Maybe one that's slightly burnt, and protective of themselves.

I’ve known a lot of people who love to tell me how I really feel or how I should feel or even who I am and I have zero tolerance for that.

OH. That's Lion. That focus on "how I feel IS me" and having this intense anger at anyone who pushes back against that.

I don’t need or want other people to tell me who I am, I know who I am, you can take it or leave it, I’m not going to apologise for it or pretend to be somebody else to fit the image others have of me.

This could be either Lion primary or Lion secondary, but the fact that we know that you love to troll, act a part, do a bit for fun... means that this sentiment is probably coming from your primary.

You can argue about what or how I think but you don’t get to tell me my feelings are wrong.

Lion primary, especially with how much emphasis this point is getting.

It takes a lot of trust before I open up to somebody and if their reaction is being dismissive or condescending, we can’t be friends.

That's a human thing.

I love my friends more than anything and that’s why I don’t immediately jump in to defend them. I trust them to take care of themselves and if they need my help, they can always ask for it but I’m not going to force it onto them.

I suspect that this is also a Lion primary thing. Lions value freedom more than anything, and so they show love by giving others freedom. You respect others by acknowledging that they know themselves best, and will ask for help if they need it.

(Actually, a *very common* Idealist/Loyalist miscommunication is when an Idealist views a Loyalist's "checking in" as being clingy/suspicious/infantilizing, and a Loyalist views an Idealist's "live and let live" as cold/uncaring/forgetful.)

I’ve had a lot of experience with exploded authoritarian badgers (I seem to attract all the unhealthy badger primaries within a ten-mile radius, lucky me eh)

Yeah, I thought you probably had some very binary black/white decision makers in your life.

so I’m very adamant about letting people make their own decisions and I expect the same in return. I don’t respond well to people trying to “help” me when I don’t want their help, it makes me feel weak and like I’m being treated like a child or an idiot. Actually, if somebody kept doing that, it might also end the friendship (though I guess you could put this one under ignoring boundaries too).

That's a human thing, but it's a human thing that would hit a Lion primary especially hard. Because offering to help a Lion who doesn't need help is going to feel very *personal,* very "you are not seeing/respecting the inner truth of my being" in a way it just wouldn't to a Badger, Lion, or Snake.

I’m reasonably good at planning but I don’t think it’s anything to do with my secondary, it’s just common sense and good time management.

I promise you, it doesn't feel that way to everyone. It feels that way to you... because you're a Bird secondary, or have a strong Bird secondary model.

I’m a decent cook and my favourite method is throw stuff in and see what happens but if I’m making an actual dish that exists for the first time, I’m going to look at the recipe. If I have 10+ exams in one week, I’ll make a list of what I need to study for first. My resources (time, money, patience) are limited and I’m not redoing something simple multiple times just because I refuse to be organised about it.

Bird bird bird bird rapid fire bird.

I love thinking on my feet. I generally believe that the best way out is through but I’m not going to stand there and bang my head against the wall when it’s clearly not working. I also know how to approach a problem from several angles and use my knowledge/skills to solve it (I have a lot of those because collecting knowledge and skills is so fun, their hypothetical usefulness is irrelevant as long as I’m enjoying the process). I try to always choose the right method for the problem.

🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 🐦 

The one thing I want to point out is that if the problem is something important to me, I’m not going to do the whole which method would work best thing. That’s for boring, everyday stuff. If somebody is interfering with me (like that example with people ignoring my boundaries), I will dig my heels in and you’d have more luck convincing an entire mountain to move out of the way than getting me to budge even an inch. I might break but I will never bend.

... that's the Lion primary talking. Notice how you're not talking about problem solving/going about your life normally anymore. You're talking about metaphysical threats to who you are, what you stand for, and what you want.

The most typical example I can think of is if somebody does something I explicitly told them not to do and has the gall to act like I’m being ungrateful and irrational because clearly it’s for my own good, I just don’t know it, I will absolutely tear them apart and feel justified about it too. It’s one thing when it’s people I’m not that close to but I expect my friends to have the decency to stab me in the front. I need to be able to trust them and lying or pretending to be doing something for me when it’s clearly for their own benefit is the worst kind of betrayal (worst part is I would kill for my friends, so if they do or don’t want me to do something, for whatever reason, all they have to do is ask and I’ll most likely listen unless it’s something very important to me, in which case I would expect them to accept it anyway, because that’s what friends do –

'I need to be able to trust the people around me me. If they ask me not to do/not do something, I'll do it unless it's one of the things that I really care about. And then if they don't accept that, it's a dealbreaker.'

Very Lion primary.

this obviously only applies to the person I'm closest to (usually one), it’s like a special privilege if you will, I do what I want but I will take into consideration the opinion of this one person because I care about them so much).

I'm willing to believe that you've probably built a Snake primary model for this one person. That makes sense, and it also helps make sense of why you love the fierce loyalty you tend to see with Snake so much.

Sorry there’s not a lot of (any?) concrete real-life examples but my mind went completely blank for some reason. I think writing this helped me figure it out myself (I’m still unsure about the models) but I’d still love to find out what you think!

I think that you're a Lion primary who was probably Burned at some point in the past. (It's very possible that you modeled Exploded Badger primary.) You started to adopt some of the Bird primary language that is common to a lot of Burnt Lion primaries, and it's also possible that you latched onto your Snake Person, who was a much more positive influence than all the Authoritarian Badgers in your life. Currently your primary isn't Burnt, but it is... protective, and very careful not to put itself in situations where Burning becomes likely.

And you're a Bird secondary. Very loud Bird secondary.